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Brago, King Eternal - Complete Guide

Commander / EDH* Control Infinite Combo Stax WU (Azorius)

Berilio


Brago Guide

ABOUT THE DECK LIST: THE DECK LIST ABOVE IS NOT IMPORTANT, it is always changing. Sometimes it is competitive/optimized, sometimes it is completely budget or casual.

DECKBUILDING TIPS: This article main purpose is to provide guidance on HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN BRAGO DECK. At the beginning of each important section there are tips on what to look for when building your own list.

CARD EVALUATION AND DATA BASIS: Each section have general comments and an analysis on many possible cards to run. I also included many niche, fringe playable and not desired cards on each section, so we can have a "ETB Database" to always check for new cards.

Deck Concept

GENERAL DECK IDEA: Brago, King Eternal is the king of value. It's ability allows you to trigger "Enter the battlefield" and "Leave the battlefield" effects every single turn. You will pack your deck with good cards that do something when they enter the battlefield, like drawing cards, destroying something, gaining life, and whenever your majesty hits the opponents, you will get every trigger again and build an advantage.

BRAGO'S ABILITY UNTAPS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE: When permanents leave the battlefield and come back again, they come back as new objects. They are not the same card that was previously on the battlefield. This means they will lose/reset its counters and come in to play untapped. The main use of this interaction is to use our Mana Rocks twice in a turn (once before attacks and once on the Second Main Phase). This means we can ramp mana in a weird way, despite not being in colors good for ramping.

BRAGO DECK IS EXTREMELY RELIABLE ON ITS COMMANDER: Your deck is much slower when Brago is not on the field hitting your opponents. You have to guarantee its survivability and give him enough evasion to hit every single turn (only flying is not enough in many games).

THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO FINISH THE GAME: There are tons of different ETB effects. You can create tokens to win by combat. You can mill your opponents to death. You can control the board with a lot of repeatable removal. You can stall the board with stax effects. You can recur game winning spells from the graveyard. And the list goes on.

BRAGO GETS NEW TOOLS EVERY SET: Permanents that do something when entering the battlefield is a very common mechanic in the game. Every set there are new white, blue and artifact cards that can work with Brago. This means we are always making little adjustments and getting excited with weird cards when spoiler season for new sets begin.

Undestanding Your Commander

Brago, King Eternal

1) MANA COST

Costing four mana means we can start getting value on the mid game. Blue and White is a good color combination on Commander. There will be no problem involving Card Draw. There is no type of permanent or spell that we can't answer, we have counterspells, spot exile effects, mass removal. We also have good access to utility things like Life Gain and Graveyard Hate. This colors also have access to a good variety of game plans, like Mill and Token Generation.

2) FLYING

We have some evasion. But only flying doesn't guarantee our commander to hit. It's a good aspect of the card, but not enough to guarantee our game plan to work.

3) WHEN BRAGO, KING ETERNAL, DEALS COMBAT DAMAGE TO A PLAYER

If we need our commander to hit the opponent, we need evasion. We know we already have flying, but keep in mind that sometimes we will need more to guarantee a hit. Haste is also good, so he can attack as soon as possible. Also, he needs to be alive, so hexproof, shroud or indestructibility might be great.

4) EXILE ANY NUMBER OF TARGET NON-LAND PERMANENTS YOU CONTORL,

We can hit any type of permanents except lands. Artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers... we are free to use any number of them. We don't care which type of non-land permanent it is. On the other side, liking permanents means a slightly small number of instants and sorceries. We also need to target our stuff, so be careful with effects that prevent you from doing that, like Shroud.

5) THEN RETURN THIS CARD TO THE BATTLEFIELD UNDER THEIR OWNER'S CONTROL.

The payoff. Our permanents have to have the words "When ~ enters the battlefield" or "When ~ leaves the battlefield" or "When a 'permanent type' enters the battlefield" printed on them, so we do something with our Commander's ability. Also, not written on the card: We will untap our permanents, since they come back to play as new objects. We will also lose any attached auras (unless we leave something behind so they can come back to the battlefield attached to something).

6) POWER AND THOUGHNESS 2/4

Judging by Brago's base power and toughness, we won't be winning by commander damage, or putting pressure with our commander alone. He is a team player. We probably will have to dedicate some slots to guarantee his safety, and also look for strong synergies over raw card power.

Game Plan

Considering everything we know about the mechanics of our commander, we can draw a rough general game plan, that almost every Brago deck will want to follow, no matter what the theme you pick for your deck.

  • EARLY GAME: RAMP AND DRAW Two foundation of every commander deck is card draw and mana ramp. Most Brago decks spend their early games developing permanents that can be blinked to generate one of those two effects. This means they pack their decks with mana rocks and cards that cost 2 to 3 that draw cards. Later, when Brago hits the field and start the engine, you are ensured to have plenty cards in hand and mana to cast everything necessary.

  • MID GAME: PROTECT YOURSELF When people realize how much value you are getting from your things on the board, they will try to kill your commander or your most valuable permanents to slow down your game. For that reason, be prepared to react the attack. You can do this by countering spells, blinking your permanents with instant spells to dodge spot removal, get your things off the board until the end of turn with spells, and protect your creatures with defensive equipment and auras.

  • LATE GAME: RULE THE TABLE If everything went right, you just have to find one of your finishers and end the game. This is the part where most Brago decks struggle with. Some of them are so packed with card draw, protection, removal and stall effects that they forget they need to end the game. You don't want that. A Brago deck that just stalls the game and do not win on the following turns might be powerful, but its not fun to play with or against. Make a plan to end the game and execute it. This is the most customizable part, and at the end of this guide you will find many tips for each different strategy to win.

To achieve this game plan, we can make a quick template planning our deck composition to serve as baseline. Whenever you feel like you are lost building your deck, take a quick pause and see if it's anything close to this model:

  • MANA ROCKS - 10+: Since you have more than one opponent in Commander games, our spells need to be more impactful to advance you towards your victory. More impactful spells cost more, so we need to ramp. Luckly, we can use Mana Rocks twice in our turns thanks to Brago's ability. Such efficiency doesn't mean we need to run less mana rocks though. We still need to run a good amount of them so we hit them consistently and have enough mana to cast everything we need to.

  • CARD DRAW - 10+: Drawing cards is another pillar of commander decks. We need steam to keep ourselves on the table even after our opponents answers. We also need to hit our answers otherwise someone might run away with the game. Card draw on ETB is the best tool our deck can use, but do not pass on powerful draws from instants, sorceries or static effects, those are also quite useful. One thing to keep in mind is that you can pair Card Draw with other desirable effects. Depending on your deckbuilding decision, it's easy to have 15+ pieces of Draw in your deck.

  • REMOVAL - 12+: Having a way to interact with your opponents is necessary in every commander deck. We make good use on ETB removal, but remember to use cheap interactive spells. You will want them in the hour of need.

  • PROTECTION - 10+: Believe me, people will try to kill your commander all the time. You need to protect Brago so your deck do what it is supposed to do. One thing to notice is that this category covers many types of cards. Protective auras, equipments, counterspells, instants that blinks your permanents. You have a wide array of tools to decide which ones you like more.

The rest of your deck is more flexible, and you can give it your own touch. You can fill it with more removal, stax, token makers, bounce spells, instants and sorceries. You can pick your tutors, recursion spells, combos, big creatures to finish the game. Hopefuly, there will be many things of your liking, have fun making your picks.

Rules Advice

Brago's ability is kinda complex and requires good understanding of the game rules to be fully utilized. Sometimes weird interactions will happen and people will ask rulings questions. This section is here to make you prepared for this situations.

First, the basics of Flickering:

  • Permanents will return as New Objects - Rule 400.7 - A permanent that returns to the battlefield after being exiled does so as an entirely new object. It will have no memory of or connection to its previous existence. Will lose it's markers, lose counters.

  • Permanents will return Untapped - Rule 110.6b - Unless an effect says otherwise, permanents enter the battlefield untapped. This means you will untap everything you blink with brago (unless the card says it enters the battlefield tapped)

  • Pernanents will return with Summoning Sickness - Rule 302.6 - Creatures can't attack or until they've been continuously under your control since the start of your most recent turn (summoning sickness). This means that if you get extra combat steps somehow, the blinked creatures won't be able to attack.

  • Permanents will return Face Up - Rule 110.6b - Double-faced cards and morphed cards will enter the battlefield with their front face up.

  • Auras left behind will "die" - Rule 303.4c - Any Auras attached to a permanent that leaves the battlefield will be put into their owner's graveyard the next time state-based actions are checked. (unless the aura is also blinked, of course. But any auras "left behind" will be going to the graveyard). If you fail to find a valid object to attach the aura, it goes to the graveyard Rule 303.4g.

  • Equipments left behind will unattach - 301.5c - Any Equipment attached to a permanent that leaves the battlefield become unattached and remain on the battlefield.

  • Tokens will not return - Rule 110.5g - If a token creature is exiled, it will cease to exist. It won't return to the battlefield. Don't blink your tokens unless you wanna get rid of them.

  • Stolen goodies will become yours forever - Rule 110.2 - If a creature you've gained control of temporarily (Zealous Conscripts for example) is exiled and returns to the battlefield under your control, you will control that creature indefinitely. This happens because at the end of the turn, the object that was stolen is not on the battlefield anymore to be given back. The object that is on the battlefield now is a new permanent, that doesn't remember it previous characteristics. It got into play under your control and it will stay so.

That's enough for the basics. Once you understand everything above, lets see some more complex interactions and what we can do to take advantage of them.

  • CLONES - Rule 603.6d - This rule refer to cards that have abilities like Phyrexian Metamorph. It states that this abilities are not triggered, but rather static abilities that happen as part of the creature entering the battlefield event. This means this abilities won't be stopped by cards like Torpor Orb. But they still get benefits from being blinked with Brago, since we can choose to chance what they are copying once they re-enter the battlefield. It's a nice, clean way to still have some play options when being target of hate cards.

  • BLINKING AURAS - Rule 303.4f - If we blink a Aura, we choose which permanent it will be attached to when it returns to the battlefield. This word choosing is very important, because we are not targeting, we are just choosing, which means we can "bypass" hexproof and shroud (which prevent players from targeting permanents). For example: You can play a Reality Acid targeting something whatever, then hit with brago, Blink the Reality Acid and choose it to return to the battlefield attached to a opponent's hexproof creature.

  • BLINKING EVOKED CREATURES - Rule 702.73a - The sacrifice aspect of evoke is a triggered ability. It goes to the stack and can be responded. You can instant speed blink Evoked creatures (before they are sacrificed) to avoid sacrificing them and get a additional trigger. For example: You play Mulldrifter for , paying its evoke cost. It enters the battlefield and two triggers goes to the stack, "draw 2 cards" and "sacrifice this creature". You respond by casting Cloudshift on the Mulldrifter. It blinks, and a second "Draw 2 cards" trigger goes to the stack. You will end up drawing 4 cards and don't have to sacrifice Mulldrifted. The original permanent which had to be sacrificed doesn't existe anymore. The Mulldrifter that is on the battlefield is a new object, diferent from the one you casted.

  • EXILING COMMANDERS, THEN TRYING TO RETURN THEM TO THE BATTLEFIELD - Rule 903.9 and Rule 614.14 - Whenever you exile a Commander with a permanent ETB Effect, and your opponent moves said commander to the command zone, and then you blink your Removal-Permanent, two things can happen, depending on the wording of your removal spell. If your spell is worded with two different triggers, like Oblivion Ring and Fiend Hunter, the second trigger tries to find the targeted card on the Exile Zone, and will fail to find your opponent's commander (cuz it is on the Command Zone), thus, will not return it to the battlefield when blinked. But if your removal spell is worded a single trigger with a delayed effect, like Grasp of Fate, Banishing Light and Cast Out, it will remember where the commander went to, and will try to find it there and will return the commander to the battlefield if you blinked.

  • Soulbond Creatures - Rule 702.94a - If a paired creature (though Soulbond) is exiled, the pair will break. However, the creature entering the battlefield again will cause its soulbond ability to trigger again. This may cause the creature to pair with the creature it was previously paired with or another creature.

Common Mistakes

LOSING FOCUS ON DECKBUIDLING: There are so many card options available for Brago, that sometimes you lose focus on what your deck is trying to do and end up removing key pieces of the deck because there is a new kid on the block that you wanna toy with. Beware to not make your deck too slow, or too inconsistent when making changes.

DRAWING TOO MUCH ATTENTION EARLY IN THE GAME: Most Brago decks is packed with answers. But in a table full of opponents, you can't answer everything they are doing from the start of the game. I know it's hard, but let your foes join the fun at the start of the game, otherwise they can team up against you too soon and you will be out of the game.

USE A BUNCH OF UTILITY LANDS: We are a 2-Color deck, so it's a pretty simple Mana Base to Build. We don't need much fixing, so use some slots of your mana base to have desirable effects attached to your lands.

YOU CAN RUN FEWER LANDS THAN USUAL: Normaly, a commander deck uses up to 38 lands on their base, but since we are utilizing plenty of Mana Rocks and a few ways to fetch lands out of our deck repeatedly, we can use a smaller amount of lands and open space for more spells in our deck. The average Brago Deck uses 35 Lands, but you can go as low as 32/33 if you like.

AVOID ETB TAPPED LANDS: The first 3 turns you will be either ramping or playing cheap ETB Card Draw effects, so having a land entering the battlefield tapped early can mess your curve really bad.

So, lets check our options:

Dual Lands

Can enter UNTAPED:

Will enter TAPPED:

Some times we find ourselves in weird situations, like using Treachery on a creature with activated abilities of other colors, or maybe someone used Donate to give you a Experimental Frenzy that you want to sacrifice. For those situations, its good to have a few lands capable of producing any color of mana, if you can afford them:

Utility Lands

  • Rogue's Passage have a extremely powerful ability in our deck. We need to hit with Brago to make the deck work. This land provides a way to guarantee that.

  • Reliquary Tower We often draw a lot. Being able to hold everything u draw is a strong desired effect.

  • Temple of the False God ramps you and also is a great target to be untapped by effects from cards such as Peregrine Drake, Cloud of Faeries and Great Whale.

  • Ancient Tomb is the same as Temple of the False God, but work before turn five for a mere 2 life point per activation. It's good to cast a Brago early, but remember to not run many colorless lands. The card is also pretty expensive. It's a good card, but not nearly from mandatory.

  • Academy Ruins is are great. Brago tends to use a lot of artifacts. Ruins provides a way to recur them from your cemetery as many times as we need. Very powerful.

  • Buried Ruin is a great budget alternative to Academy Ruins. Has a upside that gets the thing right back to your hand, but the downside that you can use only once. If needed, it can be bought back with Sun Titan.

  • Inventors' Fair lets you tutor out the artifacts from your deck. This can be great. You can use it to get protection from brago in form of equipments, or get permanent removal like Spine of Ish Sash.

  • Command Beacon You need Brago to make your deck work. If the game goes long and things go bad, being able to cast your commander without paying it's Tax can be huge.

  • Halimar Depths can be run to manipulate your next draws. But if you are running fewer lands, don't use it. You can't scry to the bottom, only reorganize the top, and more often than not, this is not enough. Coming into play tapped can screw you up. A basic land will be better most of the time.

  • Emeria, The Sky Ruin Yes it comes into play tapped, but the effect is really powerful. Getting a creature from your graveyard every turn is huge. Be sure to run enough plains if you decide to use it.

  • Arcane Lighthouse Brago usually runs a ton of spot removal. Arcane Lighthouse ensures you hit your removal when needed.

  • Endless Sands and Safe Haven are a additional way to save your creatures from removal spells or getting an extra ETB effect out of them if really needed.

  • Strip Mine, Ghost Quarter and Wasteland You can run a land destruction package to hoze your opponents, but they are not mandatory. If you do, you can use cards like Sun Titan to repeatedly bring them back and use them again. But avoid them if you are using Tsabo's Web to mess your opponents. You might not be able to untap them.

  • Secluded Steppe, Lonely Sandbar, Drifting Meadow, Remote Isle, Desert of the Mindful and Desert of the True are nice if you are in need of utility lands, but being a tap land is a big drawback. Not recommended, but you can add one or two of them to your deck.

  • Shefet Dunes Doesn't provide a good enough upside unless you are on the Token Plan. In this case, it might be nice to have it.

  • Ipnu Rivulet Doesn't provide a good enough upside unless you are on the Mill Plan. In this case, it might be nice to have it.

  • Ancient Den and Seat of the Synod are basicaly auto-includes if you are running Trinket Mage. Darksteel Citadel is also great, since it can be fetched with trinket mage and survives land destruction strategies.

  • Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, Flood Plain and other slow fetches have the drawback of coming into play tapped, which could severely prejudice your early plays. But they provide good utility, since many cards get benefits from deck shuffling, like Brainstorm, and some cards can also recur them from the graveyard, like Sun Titan.

CONCLUSION: Brago's mana base is pretty great. Being only in two colors, you can pick which effect you want in your utility lands and use the dual lands available to you. Don't be afraid of using basics if you can't afford many non-basics. Anything should work here as long as you have a sufficient number of untapped lands.

WE GET DOUBLE MANA FROM ROCKS, SO USE A TON OF THEM: We can use Mana Rocks Twice on a Turn by untaping Mana Rocks with Brago's triggered ability (if you exile the rocks they will come back into play untapped). For this reason we should use more Mana Rocks than normal in our deck.

PRIORITIZE COLORED MANA ROCKS: Also, its nice to have them produce colored mana, instead of colorless, so we can guarantee to cast our spells.

PRIORITIZE ROCKS THAT COST 2 OR LESS: Since Brago is a 4 Mana Commander, we want to prioritize Mana Rocks that cost 2 or less, so we can be able to play Brago earlier if we want. A few exceptions can be made though.

ETB RAMP IS ALSO VALID: There are a few creatures that ramp when ETB. They are also great to run in addition to the Rocks. However, avoid any ramp that is not ETB or Rocks, like a spell or ramp upon self-sacrificing.

So, lets check our options:

Powerful Rocks

  • Sol Ring a staple in every commander deck. Does not produce colored mana, but we can't complain. It can be tutored with Trinket Mage.

  • Mana Vault The drawback from Mana Vault is almost non existent in our deck, since it can be untapped with your commander's ability. It also can be tutored with Trinket Mage.

  • Mana Crypt is another Sol Ring to have. It also can be tutored with Trinket Mage.

  • Grim Monolith drawback is almost non existent in our deck, since it can be untapped with your commander's ability.

  • Basalt Monolith is similar to Grim Monolith. The drawback does not apply to our deck.

  • Gilded Lotus is high on the curve, but produces plenty colored mana.

2 Mana Rocks

Expensive Rocks

  • Commander's Sphere three mana is more than what we want to pay for a mana rock, but being able to draw a card whenever you want is really desirable. Sometimes Brago dies and you can't activate your ETB effects, but still need to draw cards. Commander's Sphere can solve that. Also, it can be bought back with cards like Sun Titan and Buried Ruin.

  • Azorius Cluestone is great, like commander's sphere. Can produce you colored mana and draw you a card. Good.

  • Coalition Relic can generate colored mana and once in a while give you a extra mana to enable you to execute the turn you want. It's a solid option if you are looking for a extra rock to run.

  • Vessel of Endless Rest gets you colored mana and can put things back from your graveyard to on you deck. Also, it can mess with your opponents graveyards to prevent recursion. It's nice, but not great. Use it if you face mill decks, graveyard decks or have many tutors.

  • Ojutai Monument is fine. Produces colored mana and can turn into a good sized flier. Run it if you like it.

  • Chromatic Lantern is very powerful. Produces colored mana and fixes your colors, but we are in two colors only, so not that impressive in our deck unfortunately.

  • Darksteel Ingot is solid. Gives you colored mana and will survive removal. Good.

  • Azorius Keyrune if you are searching for one more rock, you can add it. It produces colored mana and can become a desperate blocker. Its ok.

  • Worn Powerstone is awful. It enters the battlefield tapped, so Brago can't use it effectively.

  • Prismatic Geoscope It enters the battlefield tapped, so Brago can't use it effectively. Don't run it.

  • Hedron Archive costs too much and Does not produce colored mana. Drawing cards is nice, but not at that cost. You can't get it back with Sun Titan. I wouldn't recommend it.

  • Thran Dynamo i find them too expensive. Ramping 3 mana is good, but they are not colored. However, it's not a weak card in the deck. You can run it if you are a fan.

  • Dreamstone Hedron falls on the same pit as Thran Dynamo. Too expensive. No colored mana. Don't run it.

  • Everflowing Chalice Do not run it because you can't blink it. It will lose its counters.

  • Mox Opal can be used, but won't be active all the time, so i don't recommend it.

  • Meteorite Sometimes the board get full of small creatures with relevant abilities that you wanna remove, but not waste a spell to do it. Meteorite is the perfect card that will solve this problem. Very good and funny to see it running. Will ruin the day of some decks.

  • Khalni Gem Gives you mana but has a huge drawback of returning lands to your hand. Don't run it of course unless you find some bizarre use to it. In this case, please tell me.

  • Paradise Plume is a decent mana rock that produces color of a chosen color and might give you some utility in form of life gain. Maybe if your meta is really aggro and you need more ways to survive, this might help you. Otherwise i wouldn't run it.

  • Seashell Cameo, Cultivator's Caravan, Manalith, Spectral Searchlight, Pristine Talisman, Seer's Lantern this are here so you know that they exist, but they aren't desirable.

ETB Ramp

  • Kor Cartographer can give you a land every turn if Brago is in play. It also can fetch dual lands with the Plains type. If you are running "Emeria, The Sky Ruin", Kor Cartographer is a great way to fill its ability. Overall is a great card.

  • Solemn Simulacrum Easy to cast. Can give you a basic every turn if Brago is in play. Will give u a card when the board is wiped or when it blocks something relevant. Really good.

  • Knight of the White Orchid works maybe for a few triggers, but then you might ramp more than everyone on the table and it becomes obsolete. I don't think it worth a slot in the deck.

  • Sailor of Means is interesting. Not particularly good though, since treasure tokens can be used just one time.

Mana Manipulation

  • Cloud of Faeries can ramp you 2 mana every turn when Brago is online, but won't do much besides that. It doesn't combo easily like Peregrine Drake and it's easy to remove. I'm not a fan.

  • Parallax Tide You can target your own lands before blinking it to Ramp 5 Mana. It can also be used on your opponents lands to deny them mana. Pretty good. Pretty good. NOTE: Some groups dislike mana denial, and if you are playing for fun, this card might not be recommended.

  • Peregrine Drake Is known to be a combo piece with Strionic Resonator and Deadeye Navigator, but by itself can ramp you mana each turn using Brago's trigger.

  • Great Whale and Palinchron same as Peregrine Drake, but more expensive to cast at first. I would use both or Peregrine Drake alone. Keeping your curve low is important.

  • Treachery steals a creature and ramps you mana each turn. The only thing that shall keep you away from adding it to your deck is it's price tag.

  • Kefnet's Monument only ramps creatures, and often brago decks run a small amount of them. But if you are on the Tokens Plan or a Tap/Bounce Theme, you can run it and it will work. Also, it triggers only on cast, not when a creature enters the battlefield.

  • Oketra's Monument can help you if you are on the tokens plan. Otherwise don't run it.

  • Herald's Horn exists if you go on some kind of tribal build. Spirits, Soldiers and Knights are the most viable options i think.

CONCLUSION: A average commander deck would run 8 to 10 mana accelerants. We can manage to have a bit more, since we get double the amount of ramp. A good amount of rocks to have is 10 to 12. Give preference to the ones that enable a early turn Brago, the ones that give colored mana and the ones that gives a ton of mana.

YOU CAN DRAW A BUNCH: Brago can repeat ETB effects. Use ETB Card Draw effects and you will be able to fill your hand every turn. This can't go wrong.

YOU CAN DRAW A BUNCH: We are in blue. Blue is the best color for drawing. Its valid to complement the ETB Card Draw effects with a few powerful draw spells. This really can't go wrong.

CARD DRAW IS A GREAT OVERLAP EFFECT: You will see cards that progress our game plan, like protecting Brago or stall our opponents and also draw cards in addition to their effects. Overlapping abilities is a great way to achieve deck consistency.

HAVE YOUR DRAW EFFECTS AT A LOW MANA COST: When Brago hits the battlefield, its desirable that you already have some permanents into play to blink. For this reason, try having as many draw effects as possible costing 1 to 3 mana. If you are going to run draw spells at higher mana costs, make sure its powerful enough.

MANAGE YOUR HAND WISELY: Some games you will have to discard cards at the end of the turn to go back to maximum hand size. When choosing which cards to discard, remember you probably have some ways to get back things from your graveyard in your deck. Plan accordingly so you can utilize the cards you discarded later.

Card Draw ETB 2 Mana

  • Ancestral Knowledge is a very powerful, underplayed, unknown, card advantage enchantment on Brago. You don't ever need to exile cards from your deck. You play it, organize the top 10 cards of your library, and when Brago triggers its LTB/ETB again, you shuffle your library and get to look at 10 other cards. It's a absurdly powerful card. It gets you everything you need. Its cumulative upkeep is also negligible, since you are resetting the counters every turn. One detail about it's usage: Remember the top few cards you left in your library, because when you blink Ancestral knowledge + another draw ETB with Brago, you can choose how to stack your triggers to decide if you wanna Draw before or after shuffling your library and this is pretty important.

  • Whirlpool Rider doesn't give you card advantage, but cycles through your deck like crazy, like Ancestral Knoledge. It's a pretty powerful and underplayed card. Also pretty cheap. You should run it if u like it.

  • Sage of Epityr On the same vein of whirlpool rider, doesnt draw, but fixes your draws. amazing

  • Ichor Wellspring Draw for 2 mana. Perfect. Draw also when it randomly dies. Good all arround.

  • Prophetic Prism Draw for 2 mana. Mana fixing can be relevant some times. Great.

  • Alchemist's Vial Draw for 2 mana. Can help you hit with brago or prevent a lethal attack. Great

  • Tsabo's Web Draw for 2 mana. Te ability can really mess up some greedy mana bases. It's a great underplayed card on Brago decks.

  • Wall of Omens Draw for 2 mana. Blocks early game creatures. Great.

  • Elsewhere Flask I've never seen the sacrifice ability being relevant. It's just a 2 mana repeatable draw. It's good.

  • Mycosynth Wellspring The card you draw is a land, but that's pretty desirable when you run fewer lands than normal. Additionally, you get an additional use when it dies. Can be used to shuffle your library if you need it. Great card. Plays better than it looks.

  • Augury Owl Not straight card draw, but guarantee card quality. Assures you hit your land drops early. Can be a blocker in desperate situations. Really great.

  • Sage Owl weaker than augury owl, since you can't send card to the bottom of your library. Also, Sage Aven does the same for 2 more mana. There are more powerful tools available, we don't need this 2 cards.

  • Omenspeaker one less scry, than Augury Owl. Doesn't have fliers, which can be relevant on blocking. It's a worse version of the bird, but if you are looking for redundancy, you can use it.

  • Spreading Seas We can use this to fix our mana if we have cards in hand that cost more than one blue and not enough blue sources in play. But the most use of this card is to shut down powerful lands and shut down a color of a opposing deck. Don't forget to blink this with Brago's trigger. The fact that you usually put this card on your opponent's battlefield sometimes make you forget you can bounce it to draw a card every turn.

  • Oreskos Explorer can draw you multiple lands a turn, specially if you are playing against green decks. We are most likely not ramping lands, but ramping with Rocks, so this works out most of the time. Only downside is that it can die fast, being a creature. Pretty good, but not necessary.

  • Thraben Inspector It's not immediate draw, but the card is cheap enough that we have to stop and look it. It's probably a good addition on a Brago deck that is being planned for 1x1 gameplay.

Card Draw ETB 3 Mana

  • Oath of Jace draws you a lot. When choosing what to discard, remember you might have cards in your deck like Sun Titan, Mnemonic Wall and Buried Ruin to recur your spells. Usually you will end up discarding additional lands you drew. Being a enchantment, its really never removed. Really great.

  • Induced Amnesia can make you cycle your entire deck pretty quickly, but you have to be careful. Since you are exiling your cards, you won't be able to get them back easily with recursion. It also can be used to help a "friend" draw cards, or disrupt your opponent's hand. It's a great card, but use it with wisdom.

  • Council of Advisors exists, but is easy to remove and costs 3 mana. You better off without him.

  • Trial of Knowledge is similar to Oath of Jace. You have to discard only one card, but if you don't have infinite hand size you will probably discard more cards to go back to 7. As an enchantment, nobody will destroy it. The fact that it costs four mana means that you probably will cast this after Brago is already in play, and get 2 activations of it, giving you a good shot on getting anything you need. Great card.

  • Cloudblazer Draws two cards and give you incidental life gain. Can attack on the air to get some cheap damage. Good card.

  • Mulldrifter if you have some form of instant blink, you can play Mulldrifter for its evoke cost and in response to the sacrifice trigger, blink it. You will get 4 card draws and keep Mulldrifter around. Great card.

  • Sea Gate Oracle is solid. Whenever you have a body yo block, people hesitate to attack you in commander and choose targets with no blocks. He is great to find you lands and assure you will hit your drops, and later on you can use it to find your answers. Also, it doesn't trigger "whenever a player draws a card" effects, which sometimes is relevant. Great card.

  • Court Hussar at first you think this card is a better version of Sea Gate Oracle. But here is the thing: you will have to sacrifice it after blinking him the first time with Brago. Does not worth it, don't use him.

  • Pilgrim's Eye and Skittering Surveyor can find you only lands and dies to anything. Personally, i think it costs too much to be good in our deck.

  • Merchant of Secrets is simple and effective, but there are many cards at 2 mana with the same effect.

  • Augur of Bolas most Brago decks does not use many instants or sorceries, but rather permanents that works with its ability. But if for some reason you are running a higher count of instants and sorceries, you can consider running this card.

  • Sphinx of Uthuun this guy can give you a free Fact or Fiction every turn. It's a strong card, but try to keep your curve as low as possible, so pick this Sphinx as a late game finisher.

  • Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign similar to Sphinx of Uthuun, this guy also gives you a fact or fiction every turn. Good on her own, and even better in a Sphinx Tribal Brago.

  • Pentarch Ward a aura that protects Brago and draws you a card on ETB. Pretty great to run for its overlapping effects. If you are blinking it, you have to leave a creature on the board so it has something to attach when it comes back from the blink.

  • Unquestioned Authority a aura that basically gives Brago unblockable and draws you a card on ETB. Pretty great to run for its overlapping effects. If you are blinking it, you have to leave a creature on the board so it has something to attach when it comes back from the blink.

  • Traveler's Cloak a aura that gives Brago evasion and draws you a card on ETB. Pretty great to run for its overlapping effects, but its the least power compared to the 2 previous ones. If you are blinking it, you have to leave a creature on the board so it has something to attach when it comes back from the blink.

  • Riverwise Augur is a Brainstorm on a stick. It's cool, but not particularly good. 4 mana is a lot, and the body is really small. It's ok to put in your deck though. It gets better if you have ways to shuffle your deck. Make sure you stack your triggers properly, so you can brainstorm first, and then shuffle your library with a search effect, like from Solemn Simulacrum for example.

  • Tower Geist draws you a card and puts something on the graveyard to get back later with some recursion spell. Great card.

  • Champion of Wits helps cycle through your deck and ditch things to the graveyard to be recovered later. In desperate moments can also be eternalized to proive some draws. Great card.

Static Card Draw

  • Mystic Remora is the best enchantment for Card Draw available for Brago. It only costs and the upkeep cost won't surpass a single colorless mana, because you can blink it every turn and make it loose its counters. Nobody will pay additional mana to deny it's effect. It's really powerful and a cheap card.

  • Rhystic Study is a blue staple, but people know the power of this card. They often will pay or destroy it quickly. It's a good card in any blue deck, but honestly? We don't need it. But of course, you can use it if you want, it's not a bad card at all, but know you have different options.

  • Thassa, God of the Sea Not straight card draw, but help you find what you need really well. It also can give Brago evasion and be a resilient threat late game. Very good.

  • Ephara, God of the Polis When you have devotion on, Ephara is a resilient beater to actually finish the game. When not online, is almost as a additional draw every turn if your deck is built correctly, kinda like Phyrexian Arena for black decks. I particularly didn't like to play with her, but it's a serviceable good card.

  • Standstill Your deck doesn't need to cast spells to work. Your game plan can still evolve only triggering ETB effects that are already on the battlefield. Standstill creates a political argument on the table and will make people rethink three times before casting anything. Its supper funny.

Card Draw Spells

Even though we interact better with permanents, we wanna have a few instants and sorceries in our arsenal. Cheap cantrips can help you hit your lands and ramp early game, and more powerful effects can be used more than one time thanks to recursion effects like Mnemonic Wall.

  • Brainstorm is pure power, and we can play it. Even if it's not a ETB effect, you will want this card in your deck to have strong turn 1 plays and find whatever you need. Maybe you will feel tempted to cut it for other cards that can have it's effect repeated, but do not fall for you. You can use it to find more Card Draw, repeat it with Isochron Scepeter, get it back with Mnemonic Wall and Archaeomancer. Go for it.

  • Preordain as great as brainstorm. You can also run it if you feel the need.

  • Ponder different from the previous two, this one can shuffle your library. This might be relevant to get cards out of the bottom of your deck, put there by cards like Sea Gate Oracle and Vessel of Endless Rest. Despite that, not much different. Great card to run.

  • Sphinx's Revelation great draw spell. The incidental life gain is awesome. You can draw a bunch with the amount of mana rocks we have. But its too mana intensive, and we often already have our hands full of cards. I don't think its necessary, but can be one of your high end cards.

  • Blue Sun's Zenith primary function is to mill someone if you have access to infinite mana. But you can also target yourself to find some answers if you need, and recover it back later to kill someone.

  • Pull from Tomorrow is a good draw spell, but Blue Sun's Zenith is a better option because it can be used on other players. But if your deck is designed to explode on mana, i can see this card being a good option.

CONCLUSION: You should run a good amount of card draw. Around 15 cards. Prioritize the ones that draw on ETB, but don't feel forced to play only synergistic cards. Complete the synergy ones with the raw power present on blue cards.

YOU CAN USE REMOVAL ON SUB OPTIMAL TARGETS EARLY: Because you can blink you permanent with ETB removal and change targets later in the game. No shame on exiling a mana dork with oblivion ring because later on you can blink the ring and get a threat under it.

CAREFUL TO NOT ATTRACT HATE: If you start removing everything from the table too early, people will join forces to beat you and stop your removal train. Sometimes is better just to wait and see what happens and then react if you are being the focus of attrition.

YOU CAN ACT POLITICALLY AND GIVE THREATS BACK TO YOUR OPPONENTS: You can make a deal to blink some enchantment removal and give something back to your opponents, in exchange of them not focusing you. Sometimes it works. Sometimes.

REMOVE TOKENS FIRST: When using an enchantment that gives the exiled creature back when removed, use it to remove tokens first, then use it to remove a actual creature. When a token leaves the battlefield, it ceases to exist and it won't go back to your opponent when you blink your enchantment. So remove then first if possible.

ETB Removal

  • Act of Authority is really good because it doesn't give your opponents the thing you exiled back if they kill the Act. It's just a repeatable Artifact and Enchantment removal. You won't be using the second ability much, but it's there if you desperately need it. It's sweet in our deck.

  • Grasp of Fate is an Oblivion Ring, but getting one target for each opponent. It's busted. You should run it.

  • Reality Acid will make your opponents sacrifice anything you want, including lands. This aura can also be used to deal with Hexproof creatures when blinking. Must-have card.

  • Detention Sphere is great to deal with tokens. They wont be given back to your opponent and they all get caught at the same time because they have the same name. It's great.

  • Oblivion Ring is the worse version of Grasp of Fate and Detention Sphere, but sometimes you wanna run a bunch of removal. In this case, run everything.

  • Faith's Fetters is a more expensive oblivion ring, but that gains you life. This incidental life gain makes it better to use instead of removal-only effect.

  • Banishing Light is another oblivion ring, in case you need more it this effect.

  • Cast Out costs one more than Oblivion Ring, but having the option to cycle is great, making it a better card for Commander.

  • Journey to Nowhere only exiles creatures. This is a huge downside. Threats in Commander come in various forms, and you wan't to answer anything. I don't recommend using it.

  • Reflector Mage also only remove creatures, but bounce them for two full turns. Is a great card. One of the best bounces available.

  • Exclusion Ritual is good because it doesn't give threats back when it's dealt with. But it's expensive. Note that your opponents can still cast their Commanders if they got exiled and moved to the Command Zone. It's decent, but not great. Run if you don't have anything better.

  • Spine of Ish Sah Is awesome. It is capable of destroying lands. If its destroyed, you get it back. It's a must have in the deck.

  • Venser, Shaper Savant is another must have, he is very, very versatile. He can Bounce ANY permanents. ANY. Including lands. Including your own stuff. AND spells. If you get infinite mana somehow, like Peregrine Drake + Deadeye Navigador and put Venser into play, you can bounce EVERYTHING your opponents have on the board,including lands, to their hands. You then can't prevent them from casting anything by bouncing their spells. If somehow that doesn't win you the game, you can bounce your own stuff to save them from removal. He is impressive.

  • Riftwing Cloudskate is a slightly weaker version of Venser. It can also bounce any permanent, but not spells. And can be "cast" on turn 2. Great to have.

  • Phyrexian Ingester a giant threat that also serves as removal. A bit expensive but you can run it as a finisher.

  • Luminate Primordial is a great removal tool, but not as good as a finisher. Giving life back to your opponents can be a huge slow down on your timer to win the game. It's a great card to use on a stax, control or combo build, but not as efficient on the deck that is trying to win in other ways.

  • Sunblast Angel is not as good as you might think. Sometimes you can't blink Brago to have it untapped because he has an aura on him. Sometimes people just don't attack with their creatures. It's good on a deck that is trying to tap creatures though.

  • Angel of Serenity is great. It can act politically by diving things back to people from their graveyards, it can answer multiple threats. Its a huge flying body. Nice card to have.

  • Nevermaker is really good. It can lock down an opponent from his draw step. It also stops aggression to a certain degree. People will avoid giving you the chance to block with him and having it leave the battlefield.

  • Parallax Wave is a monster. It can keep up to 4 threats out of the board. It can save your stuff from removal. It's a rare overlap effect on a card. Use it.

  • War Priest of Thune and Enlightened Ascetic are simple and efficient, but easy to be removed from the board. It also can't remove artifacts, which is a shame. You can use it though if you want a high creature count or use cards like Reveillark.

  • Stalking Leonin is a great political tool. Holds the aggression really well. It also functions really great with instant speed blink.

  • Palace Jailer is better than it looks. It's a removal spell that also gives you card draw. It might also serve as a political factor to make opponents not attack you, otherwise a big threat come back to the table.

  • Baffling End only removes small creatures. It doesn't give them back when you blink though. Note that the player that gets the token doesn't need to be the one that you exiled a creature with Baffling End.

  • Mind Harness is a mind control for green and red creatures for one mana, and you can blink it to avoid paying it's tax. If you like to make your opponent pick your cards to read what you are playing, you will be happy with this one.

Spell Removal

  • Swords to Plowshares deals with everything. If you want to pack non-ETB single target removal, this is the best option. Remember you can use it on your own creatures. It can save your life on some weird corner case situations.

  • Path to Exile is another version of Swords to Plowshares. The drawback is also not that relevant. Run both if you want. Not necessary if you are running a ton of ETB removal though.

  • Reality Shift is the budget alternative for the mentioned above. It's a blue spell, which is weird, but works wonders. Sometimes you put something relevant back on the board, but most of the times not, like Chaos Warp.

  • Declaration in Stone is another good cheap alternative. It has a bonus of being really great against token decks.

  • Return to Dust is a very common card used in white to deal with artifacts and enchantments. But many of our ETB Removal catches any type of non-land permanent, so return to dust isn't that important. But it's still great of course. You can use it if you like it.

Mass Removal

  • Aligned Hedron Network will only deal with huge threats, but those are the most important targets to be able to answer. since you can blink it with brago, you can deny the table any creature with power 5 or more to stay on the battlefield.

  • Cyclonic Rift is the most played blue card. It's a must have.

  • Hour of Revelation in commander this is a three mana wrath. The on its cost is a bit prohibitive, but nothing huge. Remember that this will destroy not only creatures, but everything, and you run many artifacts and enchantments. If you have this in hand, plan your turns wisely.

  • Supreme Verdict Is wrath of god that can't be countered. Only being a bit more difficult to cast. Use it

  • Fell the Mighty is a great board wipe with potential to kill your opponents threats and leave everything on your side of the field alive.

  • Wrath of God is the most iconic board wipe in white. Really good. Feel free to use it.

  • Dusk / Dawn doesn't hit the majority of the creatures you will have, and then it becomes a recursion spell in your graveyard. It also combos really well with Mnemonic Wall and Archaeomancer. They aren't destroyed by it and can recur this from your graveyard every turn to keep the board clear. Very nice.

  • Evacuation can be used as a weaker cyclonic rift (since it only bounces creatures), but also used defensively, when you are on a dominant board position and someone tries to board wipe you. Sure you have to play everything again, but you will trigger a few extra ETB effects doing so. Don't underestimate the power of instant board wipes, this card is good.

  • Ixidron is really tricky to use, because it will also turn Brago face down. But if you have a way to flip it up (link a blink spell) or can bring Brago to the battlefield after Ixidron is there, you can mess up with your opponents really, really hard. The only way for them to get their creatures back is to trade them in combat, so they die and can be cast again/get back from the graveyard. You force your opponents to jump through hoops to get their commanders back. It's pretty nice.

  • Fall of the Thran i can't even... you will basically Armageddon everyone every turn. You monster. I love you.

  • Austere Command is powerful, but might endup hitting your own things sometimes.

Equipments

  • Lightning Greaves is the best equipment you can ever ask. Haste super is relevant because our Commander's ability triggers on combat damage and Shroud will make him really hard to remove. It's equip cost being 0 is another upside, you don't need to worry about casting Brago a turn later to ensure his survival. The only minor downside is that Shroud make so you can't target whoever is equipped with your abilities, including Brago's trigger. Another really good use of Greaves is to equip it to Sun Titan to give it haste and trigger it's ability twice when you cast him.

  • Swiftfoot Boots twin brother of Lightning Greaves. Has the upside of giving your creature hexproof instead of Shroud, but the downside of costing to equip. Run it. Its great.

  • Whispersilk Cloak gives the removal protection and guarantee evasion. Pretty good, the only downside being it's equip cost of . When paired with the fact that it doesn't give haste, makes up for a slow vesrion of the two boots presented above. It can be fetched with Treasure Mage tough, which is a upside. Not the best option on the market, but a pretty solid choice. Most Brago decks use it for that reason.

  • Haunted Cloak is fetchable with Treasure Mage and give Brago haste. It's not bad, but giving the fact that it doesn't give protection, you can only run it if your field is low on creature removal.

  • Cloak and Dagger is another good and cheap piece of equipment that give shroud. The rogue clause is not relevant, and the equip cost is a bit pricey, but its a nice option, specially if you don't have the boots.

  • Darksteel Plate is great to protect Brago from mass removal spells. It's also fetchable with Treasure Mage. Good card.

  • Hammer of Nazahn is awesome. The equip cost is basically free and not only gives Brago resilence, but add some power in the air, which is relevant, because a normal Brago deck doesn't have many beaters, and Brago being a 4/4 indestructible blocker instead of a 2/4 is really great.

  • Shield of Kaldra It's too expensive, but gives two layers of indestructibility. Problem is that you are investing too much mana on this effect, and a exile spell would leave you behind a good chunk. It's not a good card, but its a option available that worth mentioning.

  • Skyblinder Staff basicaly gives Brago unblockable (you still can be blocked by reach), and a extra power to help against Elesh Norn and to kill by commander damage if you need. It also can be tutored with Trinket Mage. Good addition.

  • Neurok Stealthsuit is doesn't give haste, but give enough protection and can be attached instant speed. Is a card to consider.

Auras

  • Unquestioned Authority is used in many Brago decks mainly for the card draw. The protection from creatures clause is often not relevant during non-combat situations, but is great to have during attacks because it works like unblockability. Use it.

  • Pentarch Ward is very similar to Unquestioned Authority. The redundancy on the draw effect is amazing, and having protection from a chosen color means unblockability against some decks, and protection from spot removal. Great card.

  • Traveler's Cloak the third aura that costs and draws you a card on ETB. This one is the weaker of the three, giving only evasion and no protection. Great nonetheless. You should run it.

  • Aqueous Form has the upside of costing only one mana, but only gives evasion and "draws" you only half a card on average. You can run it, but there are better options on the market.

  • Shielded by Faith Is great if your playgroup is packed with mass destruction. It has the upside that you can play it without Brago on the battlefield, and move the aura to your commander when you cast it. Also, if brago is already protected, you can move it around to other creatures, pretty much like an equipment. Great card.

  • Gift of Immortality is not only great on Brago, to protect it from removal, but also on other creatures, granting an additional ETB effect if someones decides to kill them.

  • Indestructibility is a weaker version of Shielded by Faith, but if you want more cards with the same effect, is a good choice.

Instant Blinks

First, notice that you can use instant flicker effects to protect Brago from spot removal, but also to get additional triggers from permanents you control, if you need it.

  • Cloudshift Very efficient. One mana for the effect we are looking for. Very good.

  • Essence Flux Same as cloudshift, with a potential upside of putting a +1/+1 counter on our commander. Please notice that this might be a drawback depending on the synergies of your deck. For example, if you have Dusk / Dawn or Austere Command, Brago can be hit by its effect by accident.

  • Momentary Blink one more mana on the front side to be able to flash it back from your graveyard? Deal. You are getting two cards for one. Also, sometimes you get to discard cards to fit hand size or to resolve drawing and discarding effects. In this situations you can safely discard Momentary Blink, because you can use it still from the graveyard.

  • Siren's Ruse You are hardly drawing a card our of this. It's a worse version of Momentary Blink in our deck. You don't need to use it.

  • Flicker same as Siren's Ruse. And is a sorcery. Its really bad.

  • Displace is nice because it can hit two creatures you control, potentially saving one from removal and getting additional enter the battlefield triggers. You can also target only one creature with it, so no downside on it. Good card to use.

  • Ghostly Flicker is great because you can target two things, and it can target artifacts and lands. There are many artifacts with ETB in our deck. Most notably Spine of Ish Sash. Really great card.

  • Otherworldly Journey is capable of saving your creatures from board wipes, because the creature returns only at the end step. It also returns a bit bigger. Good card.

  • Turn to Mist functions much like Otherworldly Journey. Does not give a +1/+1 counter but is a bit easier to cast. Good card.

  • Vanish into Memory is not great unfortunately. Most of your creatures have more toughness than power, so you will end up discard more than drawing. Also, it comes back at your upkeep, which means the creature will be affected by summoning sickness and will not be able to attack. If we use this to save Brago, we got delayed a turn anyway, its like if Brago died. Not good.

  • Mistmeadow Witch can save your team from spot removal or mass removal if you have enough mana, which is pretty plausible. Good card to have on the late game.

  • Acrobatic Maneuver is a bit too expensive, but if you like packing your deck with card draw effects, go for it.

  • Eerie Interlude saves your entire team from any kind of removal, and also triggers every creature ETB effect at the end of turn. Its absurdly powerful, a must have. One detail is that you need to target your creatures. If they have Shroud for some reason, you won't be able to save the shrouded creature.

  • Ghostway saves your entire team like Eerie Interlude, but you don't have to target every single creature. It's also a must have card.

  • Teferi's Protection while Teferi's Protection doesn't trigger your ETB effects (Phasing Out and In doesn't remove the permanents from the game, they only cease to exist and get back into existence), it protects you from any sort of shenanigans. This card is powerful by itself and you should run it if you have it.

  • Voyager Staff a different interesting alternative. By having this card on the battlefield, you basically tell your opponents to not mess with you. This card can also be bought back from the graveyard with cards like Sun Titan. Its a great underused card.

  • Synod Sanctum is another Voyager Staff but more mana intensive. Not as good. I think there are better card to run than this one.

  • Illusionist's Stratagem is a ghostly flicker for one mana more that can target only creatures, but draws a card. If you like spells that replace themselves and blinking, you will be happy.

  • Sentinel of the Pearl Trident is able to get extra triggers from your artifacts and legendaries like "Venser, Shaper Savant". Also he can save Brago from spot removal.

  • Long Road Home Is a instant blink that brings back the creature only at the end of the turn. That's perfect for dodging board wipes. If that's what you are looking for, this card is for you.

Counterspells

  • Counterspell good old counterspell.

  • Render Silent many Brago decks use it, but i don't like it. The casting cost is more prohibitive than you think, and the "your opponent can't cast spells this turn" is hardly relevant, because its part of the resolution of the spell, so your opponent can still respond to this cast. I don't like it, but the masses run it.

  • Swan Song is awesome. The drawback might be relevant, because you are trying to hit in the air with your commander after all, but worth the upside of countering tree relevant spell types with only one blue mana.

  • Muddle the Mixture is a counter but also a tutor. The best targets for tutoring i think are Cyclonic Rift, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots.

  • Disallow answers everything. Really good option.

  • Disdainful Stroke is a great budget alternative.

  • Thwart and Foil are budget "free" counters that you might like if your play field is full of combo and control decks.

  • Arcane Denial countering spells, drawing cards. its good.

  • Dissipate is a great budget alternative.

  • Dissolve is a great budget alternative.

  • Dispel is not that great. there are many other types of relevant spells on commander. Countering only instants is not enough. Use Swan Song instead.

  • Negate is great.

  • Daze is risky. Sometimes you will counter crucial spells on the early turns and build an advantage. But if its any close to mid or late game, this is mostly a dead card in your hand, since your opponents will most likely be able to pay the 1 mana tax.

  • Turn Aside sends good message: don't focus me, go bother someone else. I like it.

  • Rewind i find it a bit too expensive.

  • Pact of Negation and Force of Will are also a option if you have the cards.

  • Cryptic Command is a very potent spell to cast and get back with recursion effects. Not only counters, but being a modular spell, is capable of doing a bunch of things.

  • Mystic Confluence provides as much utility as Cryptic Command.

  • Ojutai's Command is not known to be as powerful as the previous modular spells, but is still really potent and a decent option.

This section is the longest section of this guide, and with the most variety of effects.

Life Gain

Most cards here are pretty straight forward and not very powerful if you are not building a deck themed around gaining life. The most notable ones will jump to your eyes, while the rest are here just so you know their existance and can seek out for them if you are filling some gaps.

  • Resolute Archangel is the best option for healing for any Brago deck. You will fully heal and end your opponent's hope of killing you before you get out of control.

  • Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant are a nice choice if you are on a metagame full of tokens, or if your strategy revolves around generating tokens.

  • Suture Priest is another source of life gain that relies on creatures entering on your side of the battlefield. Is a nice adition if thats what you looking for.

  • Anointer Priest if your deck is token themed and you want to gain some life, here is another adition.

  • Faith's Fetters Removal is always great. If you are looking into some added life gain on your spells, this one might be a great choice.

  • Auriok Champion same as Soul Warden and Attendant.

  • Filigree Angel it's not hard to accumulate a bunch of artifacts on the table playing Brago. Also, some of those artifacts might also be Mana Rocks, which mean the expensive cost of eight mana is not unachievable.

  • Inquisitor Exarch is not great as a life gain card, but has some added utility to be able to shock your opponents instead of gaining life. This can be useful when you do infinite with Strionic Resonator and a Mana Rock, or something like that.

  • Archon of Redemption is a great life gain card if your deck revolves around flyers.

  • Angelic Chorus if you are building a deck around lifegain, you wanna have this card in your list.

  • Aven Riftwatcher will gain 4 life each time it's blinked. Has a decent body and evasion. A good card if you are looking for life gain.

  • Lone Missionary Very efficient. Costing only 2 mana, this is the card that snatches you the most life per se.

  • Cathedral Sanctifier and Arashin Cleric and Temple Acolyte are second, third and fourth copy of Lone Missionary, but you lost 1 life for running multiples in EDH.

  • Healer of the Pride is more efficient if you are also making tokens.

  • Peace Strider Is reallly ineficient. You will be overpaying at least 2 mana for casting this. But if you are desperate for life gain and is already running all card above, god bless you.

  • Seraph Sanctuary is a utility land that can be ran if you have enough angels around and if you have room for one more colorless land.

Bounce and Tap

Sometimes people get mad at you for destroying their permanents? They team up against you and swear vengeance on you and your children? What if i told you that you can deal with your opponents permanents but do not attrack that much hate if you just give a bit of hope to your foes? I present you, your bounce spells:

  • Riftwing Cloudskate cab be played as early as turn 2, and when it resolves it can bounce any type of permanents, including lands, which make him a great target for Brago's ability in any deck. If he is on suspend, people will play slowly the turn before it comes down, fearing wasting their turns due to bounce. If no good targets are on the table, pick the enemy you fear the most and bounce 2 lands to his/her hand to get an enormous advantage (warning, this may cause loss of friends).

  • Man-o'-War and AEther Adept aren't strong enough to make the cut on a normal Brago deck, but if you wanna play the Bounce / Stall plan, they are a solid simple choice that will fit your deck.

  • Mist Raven same as Man-o'-War and Aether Adept

  • Wrath of Marit Lage is like a second Lavinia of the Tenth. This card DESTROYS red decks, since Red has a really hard time dealing with enchantments. You can basically keep your fellow aggro player in check, while not drawing hate from other opponents.

  • Pestermite isn't going to make the cut on a normal deck, but if you are playing with or against things like Winter Orb, pestermite might be a good choice.

  • Frost Titan is a finisher for the stall deck. He is annoying to be removed from the battlefield and locks down your opponent's biggest threat.

  • Watertrap Weaver and Frost Lynx and Stitched Mangler are great tools if you are looking down to tap your friend's stuff.

  • Dungeon Geists another way to keep your opponent's stuff tapped. This time you don't even need to blink to make sure the threat stays tapped.

  • Vedalken AEthermage this is a funny one. If you have a friend playing slivers, use this guy just to laugh when the most niche effect becomes relevant in a match. If you aren't playing against sleeves though, you might still want this for it's wizzard cycling effect, if thats a sub theme you are into.

  • Claustrophobia fits really well the stall theme. Just make sure you can have double blue mana reliably.

  • Sunblast Angel Since your creatures comes into play untaped due to brago's ability, this is a good payoff to use if you are running cards that tap your opponents things, like Pestermite and Frost Lynx.

  • Capsize last, but not least, a great spell used in many blue decks. It's buyback cost is easy to pay with your mana rocks. Is a way of winning the game if you have infinite mana with Peregrine Drake combos because you can even bounce lands.

  • Deadeye Rig-Hauler is a bad man-o'-war, but if you are looking for more effects like this, here you go.

  • Merfolk Trickster taps, removes abilities and does that instant speed the first time. Great card if you are looking to tap/bounce things.

Graveyard Hate

Graveyard recursion is a Main Theme of many decks and also a sub theme on almost every deck in Commander. The cards on this section make sure anything your opponent has dead stays dead forever.

  • Angel of Finality you will want this beauty for sure if you are facing graveyard decks.

  • Diluvian Primordial a very powerful card. Get rid of powerful instants and sorceries and also builds you a significant advantage on many situations.

  • Rest in Peace is a known for being one of the most powerful graveyard hate. It's good on its own and does't need Brago at all to function. Be careful though, it also exiles your graveyard.

Graveyard Recursion

This is a really important tool to have in your deck. Cards on this section will help you bring back things that got killed, milled or discarded due to handsize. Please realize that you can repeat many of the triggers on this cards here though Brago's ability, which will always make you have everything you need in your hand.

  • The Mirari Conjecture is amazing. It can get you 3 spells back for turn if Brago is active. It's third chapter might never be useful, but the fact that you get first and second chapters all the time, makes this card great.

  • Mnemonic Wall and Archaeomancer oddly enough are one of the most important tools you can have in your deck. Despite Brago decks caring more about permanents, the instants and sorceries in your deck are the most powerful ones. And being able to recast a Cyclonic Rift and a Counterspell every turn due to a Mnemonic Wall blinking with Brago is really powerful.

  • Sun Titan is a staple for white decks, and Brago uses his abilities like no other. You will be able to use it's recursion effect twice each turn, attacking and blinking. Really great.

  • Karmic Guide is another powerful staple card. Remember to pay the Echo cost if you wanna keep him around for more triggers each turn.

  • Angel of Serenity can also be used targeting creatures on your graveyard to get them back to your hand later.

  • Reveillark is ok. It's a leave the battlefield effect, so it's a bit more difficult to trigger than the last cards presented. But it's effect is still great if you want more recursion available for you. You can bring back some powerful creatures like Venser and Knight-Captain of eos with him.

  • Daring Archaeologist, Treasure Hunter and Sanctum Gargoyle if it's specifically artifacts that you want to recur, this are the cards for you.

  • Auramancer and Monk Idealist and Griffin Dreamfinder and Lotus-Eye Mystics are the creatures that can bring back enchantments, if you need this effect specificaly.

  • Angel of Glory's Rise if you happen to have a friend that plays zombie tribal, he will personaly ask for you to remove this card from your deck. Bringing back humans is also nice too, there are many of them that can go into brago.

  • Custodi Squire the vote mechanic is really fun, and this card fits really well on a less competitive brago list.

  • Faith's Reward Hey, everything went wrong? Are your opponents suddenly feeling happiness and relieve? No problem, this card is here to make them scared and powerless again. And if someone asks what's the best feeling ever, it is resurrect a Mnemonic Wall from a board wipe with Faith's Reward and get it back to your hand.

Extra Blinks

Not only extra blinks are a way to protect your creatures from removal if instant speed, but also a way to make your deck less reliable on your commander. Under the Protection tab a few cards that can blink on instant speed are listed there, but here is a few more. Ill try not to repeat myself.

  • Panharmonicon has a great unique effect of doubling your ETB triggers. Would be a auto include, but there are a few things to keep in mind when considering adding it: First, it's converted mana cost is a bit high and on the same cost as our commander. Second, it only doubles triggers from creatures and artifacts, not enchantments. That being said, its a good and fun card. You will get an absurd amount of value from almost anything from your deck if you decide to add this.

  • Conjurer's Closet might serve as a way to keep your deck running even if your commander is constantly being killed. One thing to keep in mind is that it only can target creatures, so don't use it if you are going on a more control/creature lite rout for your deck.

  • Strionic Resonator is a combo piece. One of the greatest cards available for Brago. You can get infinite triggers with any 2 mana rock. This card is a auto-include if you wanna be competitive.

  • Angel of Condemnation is great. You can politicaly blink your opponents creatures to get their ETB effects one more time. You can save one thing you have from mass removal. You can get an extra ETB effect at the end of turn. And you can use the angel as a Oblivion Ring if really needed. A good solid card.

  • Eldrazi Displacer Between all your mana rocks and utility lands, you won't have problems getting colorless mana to activate displacer's ability. You can use his ability as many time as you wish as long as you have mana, so he is a great way to activate your triggers if you have infinite mana, and if you don't, he can still do all the things you expect from a instant blink effect.

  • Mistmeadow Witch her activation cost is a bit steep, but you can do it multiple times and can use to save your things from board wipes, since whey will only come back at the end of turn. You can also use on your opponents creatures to remove blockers or get their ETB effects. Good card, but a bit mana intensive.

  • Restoration Angel if Brago is active, you can see resto angel as having a extra ETB effect you control of your choice. But the flash is the most important factor on considering her to your deck.

  • Flickerwisp you can't easely activate flickerwisp's ETB on instant speed. He is a cool guy, but isn't strong enough to make the cut.

  • Felidar Guardian has the possibility of blinking any permanent type. That's the solo reason you would want him in your deck. Otherwise, it falls on the same problem as Flickerwisp.

  • Oath of Teferi one extra blink on ETB. This card only provide enough value if you are building a Brago deck full of planeswalker cards.

  • Venser, the Sojourner do not look strong if you didn't played with him, but he is a awesome card. You can use him twice if Brago is online (usually granting your entire team evasion first, then getting a extra blink), but if he is not, you can use Venser to keep your deck running even without your commander or use his -1 to swing for damage with your generally small creatures. He is the best planeswalker available for Brago. Evasion and ETB activation is pretty valuable in our deck.

Clones

Sometimes your opponents have stuff that are as cool as your stuff. In this cases, you can simply make their things your things too! There are plenty of clones in MTG history to make a entire deck of them. I will showcase here only the most notable ones for Brago. Please note that you can change the things you are copying very easely, so don't be afraid of cloning a sol ring or similar early game to ramp you, and then later change the clone to be a threat on the table.

  • Clever Impersonator is able to clone all types of permanents except lands. Really strong, arguably the best.

  • Duplicant Has the advantage of being also a remove spell!

  • Phyrexian Metamorph can be cheaper than any other clone. Tell me which magic player doesn't like paying cheap costs for their spells.

Extra Evasion

If you are looking for more ways to guarantee Brago's ability to hit, this is the section you are looking. You will also find a few more cards on the protection section.

  • Thassa, God of the Sea might look not interesting because she doesn't have a ETB effect, but she can be a powerful tool in your deck. It's upkeep trigger functions as pseudo card draw, helping you find anything you need, lands or spells, and its activated ability is cheap and really useful. Later in the game she also becomes a real threat and can help you close out games.

  • Whirler Rogue gives you tokens, which are much appreciated if you want build a Brago deck that is more present on the battlefield. It's activated ability can provide evasion for Brago and be used to abuse cards like Winter Orb.

  • Deepfathom Skulker is expensive, and it's activation will probably take a turn. If you are already head and able to hit your opponents, he will build a advantage with card draw.

  • Artful Dodge might look good at first glance, but it doesn't provide enough impact to make the cut. You don't need unblockable that often and there are plenty of other cards that provide the same effect with upside, like Aqueous Form, Whispersilk Cloak and the other options mentioned above.

Tutors

To make your Commander Deck more consistent, you can add different cards with similar effects, or you can a few tutors to get you the desired effect to your hand. Here i will point out a few tutors and the most powerful cards they can fetch from your deck.

Unique Effects

  • Cloudform and Lightform can cheat big CMC permanents into play with no problem. Just target the morphed card with Brago's ability turn it face up. If you happen to flip a spell, no problem, you can get it back later with graveyard recursion anyways. I would definitively recomend cloudform. Lightform is the weaker one, but if u like this ability, you can run both.

  • Isochron Scepter To use it, you gotta have a critical amount of spells to imprint on the scepter, like at least 10. There are plenty of awesome things to exile with the scepter, like cheap white removal spells, cheap blink effects like Cloudshift, and draw and counterspells from blue. Whenever you feel like you don't need the imprinted spell anymore, you can blink the scepter with Brago and exile anything else from your hand to change it's effect. Pretty good card.

  • Diluvian Primordial a very powerful card. Get rid of powerful instants and sorceries and also builds you a significant advantage on many situations. I listed it under Graveyard Hate, but he is more than that. His ability lets you have access to spells from your enemy colors, helping you close out the game really quickly.

  • Azor, the Lawbringer basically prevent your opponents from casting board wipes. Six power is enough to make him a real threat, and if you really need, you can use him to draw a bunch. Nice Finisher.

  • Thought-Knot Seer is really easy to cast, using utility lands or mana rocks, and he provides something out of our colors, hand attack! He is a great tool to have in our box.

Infinite Combos

One of the most reliable ways to win games is performing a infinite combo that results in you winning if no one on the table successfully interrupts you. One good thing about the combos presente down below is that it's parts function independently on a Brago deck.

This combo will give you infinite mana, enter and leave the battlefield triggers. It can be achieved with Great Whale or any other creature that untaps more than 2 mana when entering the battlefield (Cloud of Faeries can do it with any land that produces more than one mana, otherwise it will only generate infinite ETB and LTB triggers).

With this combo, you can use your mana to mill someone with Blue Sun's Zenith, or get infinite ETB value with Deadeye Navigator Blink ability (getting infinite card draw from a Wall of Omens and find the card you need, for example).

Meanwhile, the ETB triggers can be used to mill someone with Altar of the Brood. You can get infinite life with Soul Warden and similar cards. You can kill everyone draining life with Inquisitor Exarch.

This combo will give you infinite ETB for all your creatures. This way you can mill everyone if you have Altar of the Brood in play, draw your whole deck with creatures like Cloudblazer, stack your deck with Augury Owl, Remove every creature on the opposing field with Luminate Primordial, get everything back from your graveyard with cards like Karmic Guide... The list of busted things to do is large.

This will also protect your creatures from spot removal. In response to your friend's evil stuff, you just blink your creatures with Parallax Wave alongside with Felidar Guardian and keep your plan going.

This combo will give you infinite copies of Brago's trigger. It works with any amount of Mana Rocks capable of producing 2 colorless mana. Once you achieve this combo, you will be able to close the game by infinite ETB triggers. It's one of the most reliable ways to win.

This combo will get you infinite turns, as long as you can hit with Brago to keep triggering the recursion effect from Archaeomancer and Wall. This combo will most likely end the game, as long as you can hit 1 opponent for free.

You will be drawing a lot of cards and developing your board and as the turns go on, you will get more things into play to trigger other effects. This will quickly grant you a clear way to win the game.

Stax Plan

Most Brago decks tends to be control, due to the great amount of card draw and removal options available.

If you want to stall the game, here are a quick list of cards that you might look into:

SIR, WHERE IS YOUR MANA - Armageddon - Fall of the Thran - Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - Winter Orb - Static Orb - Rising Waters - Stasis - Aura of Silence - Dovin Baan - Sphere of Resistance - Rishadan Footpad - Rishadan Brigand - Rishadan Cutpurse

SIR, YOU ARE ARRESTED - Lavinia of the Tenth - Azorius Justiciar - Stonehorn Dignitary - Meekstone - Overwhelming Splendor - Kismet - Imi Statue

SIR, THATS NOT LEGAL - Glen Elendra Archmage - Venser, Shaper Savant - Sanctum Prelate - Nevermore

SIR, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM HARASSING ME - Frost Titan - Karmic Justice - Propaganda - Ghostly Prison

Token Plan

Many cards create tokens when entering the battlefield. Brago be a incredible token producer. With the addition of a few anthem effects to enable your attacks, you can win through attrition. Here is a list of a few cards you might wanna look for this strategy:

TOKEN GENERATORS - Myr Battlesphere - Elspeth, Sun's Champion - Captain of the Watch - Knight-Captain of Eos - Blade Splicer - Geist-Honored Monk - Whirler Rogue - Evangel of Heliod - Wing Splicer - Enlightened Maniac - Precursor Golem - Eldrazi Skyspawner - Attended Knight - Drowner of Hope - Cloudgoat Ranger - Wingmate Roc - Crafty Cutpurse - Aquatic Incursion

TOKEN ENHANCERS - Call for Unity - Cathars' Crusade

Mill Plan

There are a few strong ETB effects capable of milling your opponent. You can use this as a easy alternate win condition on the right decks.

COMMING SOON

HATE CARDS: Torpor Orb, Tocatli Honor Guard, Hushwing Gryff, Containment Priest, Hallowed Moonlight

CAN'T STOP ME CARDS: Grand Abolisher, Silence, Dragonlord Dromoka, Supreme Verdict

COMBAT DAMAGE PREVENTION: Elesh's norn, maze of ith

Took a month or two off from magic? No problem, here are all the cards most likely to be relevant to a Brago deck from the latest few sets:

Ravnica Allegiance

Core Set 2019

Useful Links

EDHREC is one of the great websites when looking for new cards to play commander. They gather information from many deckbuilding sites (including Tappedout) and show the most common used.

CUBETUTOR is a website focused on Cube deck lists, but they have a system to search for most played cards. It's a unusual source to find niche cards. On their search parameters, choose the colors you wany (White, Blue, White/Blue or Colorless) and type "enters the battlefield" on the card text. The results always present you with a new or forgotten card.

YOUTUBE content producers made some really good guides on Brago. You should check them out if you didn't yet.

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Top Ranked
Date added 6 years
Last updated 2 years
Exclude colors BRG
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

3 - 0 Mythic Rares

52 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

11 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.60
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Soldier 1/1 W, The Monarch
Folders Commander Decks, Ideas, Other decks I like, Favorites, Inspiration, DOPE edh, Good EDH Decks, Decks, Brago, Brago Ideas
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