Breya, Fast Combo

Commander / EDH Competitive Four Color WUBR

brianlee.jpg

Instant (30)

Creature (6)

Land (29)

Enchantment (4)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Dack Fayden

Commander (1)

Artifact (16)

Sorcery (13)

The Fastest Combo in the West

Breya is a combo deck meant to win as fast as possible. She is an infinite mana sink without any other cards, which is a rare quality shared only by Urza, Lord High Artificer and Thrasios, Triton Hero . Unlike Urza, she can use the most efficient infinite mana combos in all of Magic, and unlike Thrasios, she isn't the most broken commander ever printed.

She enables combos that would not otherwise be possible in her colors. She does not, however, provide consistency. Kess, Dissident Mage gives you better flashback, Zur the Enchanter is a Necropotence and perhaps even a Grasp of Fate , but all Breya can ever be for you is a Grasp of Darkness , and an expensive one at that. Breya's multiple colors exclude her from using the best noncreature stax parts, and being nongreen excludes her from using the best creature-based stax cards.

All this taken together means that Breya should be built not only as fast combo, but as the fastest (non-green) combo in the format. She has none of the stax or value advantages of other commanders, but none of that matters when you can more consistently assemble a turn three kill.

Obligatory List of Combos

Worldgorger Dragon : Combine with Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead , enough lands/artifacts to make WUBR, and either one other creature in a graveyard or creature kill/enchantment destruction/graveyard exile for infinite mana. Set up with Entomb or Buried Alive .
Bomberman: Auriok Salvagers + Lion's Eye Diamond .
Laboratory Maniac : You know this combo. Doomsday, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, and draw. Wins through anything.
Dramatic Scepter: Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter + 2 artifact mana, plus a rainbow mox/ Sensei's Divining Top . If you use Top, win with Laboratory Maniac .
Notion Thief : Winds of Change or any wheel effect.

Building Breya

Breya should run at least one of Worldgorger Dragon or Bomberman, preferably Worldgorger. She's a nongreen infinite mana outlet, we should abuse that win no matter the risk.
Two mana counterspells like Counterspell and Delay are designed to fight threats, not protect combos. Instead of having a hand full of disruption and no draw/mana, play proactive draw/combo spells or cheaper counterspells and disruption like Silence . If you really want to play the control gameplan, Kess or Zur are just better and should be chosen as commanders instead.

Notable Choices

Omissions:

City of Brass : Painlands do not provide us with infinite mana via Worldgorger, and our mana is good enough with 10 fetches + 7 duals.
Necromancy : Instant speed Worldgorger is cute, but we can't cast Breya if we couldn't cast this as a sorcery. Two cheaper reanimation enchantments is enough.
Cyclonic Rift : If you're spending 7 mana, you could have won the game ages ago. If you're spending 2 mana, you should be spending 1.
Grand Abolisher : I found it too difficult to consistently produce in the early game. Yes, I know what I said about the rainbow painlands, but even with them it's too difficult, and there isn't any other double white card in the deck. Good card if you can get it out, but expensive.
Grim Tutor , Imperial Seal : Expensive, either in mana or cards/turns. These cards aren't bad, but there are enough good options that they're not needed.
Anguished Unmaking : Wear and the Red Elemental Blast s handle everything you care about for less mana. Three mana is a lot to spend in a four turn game.

Additions:

Echo of Eons : You can Entomb a wheel! You can discard and still cast your wheel! You can Lion's Eye Diamond your wheel! You can Intuition your wheel! It's like the Deep Analysis I always wanted.
Fiery Islet , Silent Clearing : Testing from Modern Horizons. Cycling out of flood seems good, but 2 mana is a lot to pay.
Dark Confidant : Just an efficient card draw spell, can be stronger if the stax player manages to slow down the game.
Fire Covenant : Instant speed Toxic Deluge, but different. Toxic Deluge is for sweeping the entire board, to remove pressure and slow down your opponents. Fire Covenant is here to remove problem creatures like Linvala, Keeper of Silence and should remove just the creatures you need dead. Doubles as a Worldgorger loop finisher.
Kaya's Guile : Testing this out in a flex slot. Could end up great as cheap interaction for commander-centric decks, and incidental graveyard hate is very powerful. Could end up useless, as it doesn't help you win the game, but an all-opponents effect this relevant at instant speed is very rare. Could swap back to Toxic Deluge or something like Lim-Dul's Vault .

Non-notable choices:

Timetwister (omission): Far too much $$$. A great card, I'd replace Mana Drain with it.
Mana Drain (addition): This is not an optimal slot, but I love the art and flavor text on the judge foil. Easily replaceable with another cantrip.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Description Update — June 26, 2019

Edit

I've updated the description, as I no longer agree with my old understanding of this deck and cEDH as a whole.

Card updates:

Added:

Echo of Eons
Buried Alive
Kaya's Guile
Talisman of Curiosity
Fiery Islet
Silent Clearing

Removed:

Delay
Path to Exile
Toxic Deluge
Talisman of Indulgence
City of Brass
Azorius Signet

Mostly trying out new cards - I've been very impressed with Echo of Eons. I went up a land and down a Signet for consistency, and I should have been running Buried Alive from day 1.

Old Description Show

A short discussion on Breya

Breya Ad naus

Trouble Comes In Threes

I'm going to assume that if you're here, you've already read the decklists above. They are both more refined and better informed than mine, which is just here for my own enjoyment. Instead, it might be interesting to understand Breya in the meta and what her niche might be.

Breya is a fast combo deck that can run any of the following five combos:

Doomsday + Lab Man, the best combo in the format; Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead, tied for one of the fastest combos in the format; Auriok Salvager + Lion's Eye Diamond, an easy to assemble backup combo; Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal, which doesn't rely on creatures; Notion Thief + Wheel of Fortune, made of two cards that are very good in their own right. This puts her closest to Zur, the premier Doomsday deck and arguably the best deck period, and Thrasios, the best commander mana sink. Both of these decks are better. Having Necropotence and Grasp of Fate in the command zone is absurd and well worth the loss of R, and Thrasios has several Laboratory Maniac combos that are just as fast as Worldgorger.

Breya does have a few advantages that no other deck like it does, however. Having access to R is still pretty nice, as it allows access to Wheel of Fortune , Wear / Tear , Pyroblast , Faithless Looting , and Dack Fayden , and is the best color to pull off a Notion Thief combo. Worldgorger and Bomberman are very low-slot combos, something that the deck-dump or Flash Hulk combos are not. Lastly, Worldgorger only requires you to cast two spells before you have infinite mana, which means it does not fold to a Sphere of Resistance quite as hard as Food Chain or Storm.

I think what makes Breya an interesting deck is that her slot efficiency is used to create diversity in her playstyle. While playing Kess Storm feels more or less the same every game - cast a bunch of spells that let you cast even more spells that let you play a Mind's Desire, and worry about the same spells every game - Breya lets you hold several different independent combos that have different protection requirements. Worldgorger requires that you either don't value your permanents or can protect from creature destruction, and Bomberman can better use a Grand Abolisher. You can Doomsday to set up a protected Laboratory Maniac, or you can just go off with a Tainted Pact and hope you don't die.

I think right now, this diversity in combos is weaker than the focused strength you can get by Storming off or pouring more resources into Doomsday, especially considering that both infinite mana combos are turned off by any amount of graveyard hate or Stony Silence . Even considering that, however, I think it's impossible to count Breya out. She's an incredibly fast deck that, in my experience, is on a different level than tier 1.5 decks like Arcum, Tasigur, and Karador, even if she's worse than most tier 1 decks. She's not the most Spike deck out there but she is close, and the sacrifice in power, in my opinion, has made the game much more enjoyable.

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Date added	6 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.89
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Dack Fayden, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 WB, Thopter 1/1 U
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