Brago, King Eternal - Complete Guide

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

Berilio

Card Advantage (5)

Card Tutor (12)

Defense Mechanisms (4)

Finishers (Combos) (3)

Hate (Activated Abilities) (3)

Hate (Artifact Enchant) (2)

Hate (Creature) (8)

Hate (Everything) (3)

Hate (Graveyard) (2)

Hate (Land) (7)

Hate (Stax) (9)

The Mana Acceleration (9)

The Mana Base (Lands) (32)

Commander (1)

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.

INTRODUCTION

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

MANA BASE

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:

Can enter UNTAPED:

Will enter TAPPED:

Temple of Enlightenment
Azorius Chancery Can generate more mana with cards like Peregrine Drake.
Irrigated Farmland has basic types, so can be fetched.
Coastal Tower
Boreal Shelf
Azorius Guildgate
Path of Ancestry
Tranquil Cove remind that brago doesn't blink lands.
Sejiri Refuge remind that brago doesn't blink lands.

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:

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.

MANA ACCELERATION

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:

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.

Thought Vessel Gives a valuable utility ability, since we draw so many cards.
Talisman of Progress gives colored mana.
Azorius Signet also produces colored mana.
Mind Stone can draw you a card if needed.
Fellwar Stone Will produce mana in our colors in most games.
Prismatic Lens Can fix our mana.
Sphere of the Suns Produces colored mana and can have its counters refreshed by Brago. It would be great if it didn't enter the battlefield tapped. Don't run it.
Coldsteel Heart enters the battlefield tapped, so it can't be abused with brago. Don't run it.

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.

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.

CARD DRAW

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.

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.

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.

REMOVAL

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.

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.

PROTECTION

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.

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.

UTILITY

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

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

END GAME PLANS

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.

Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake

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.

Felidar Guardian + Parallax Wave

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.

Sol Ring + Strionic Resonator

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.

Archaeomancer or Mnemonic Wall + Time Warp or any Extra Turn spell, like Savor the Moment

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.

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

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

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.

WEAK SPOTS

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

USEFUL LINKS AND LASTEST CARDS

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:

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.

CUBETUTOR - Most Played Cards on Cubes

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

Suggestions

Updates Add

Added Mind Harness — April 18, 2019

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Added Mind Harness to the removal section.

Soon ill add the War of the spark cards ;D

Rulings Advice update — June 15, 2018

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Added a bunch of cards — May 27, 2018

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A few additions — May 20, 2018

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Top Ranked	Achieved #41 position overall 6 years ago Achieved #40 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Stax 5 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 months
Exclude colors	BRG
Key combos	Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake Sol Ring + Strionic Resonator Felidar Guardian + Parallax Wave
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 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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