As soon as Brawl was announced I knew that I wanted to put together a deck that would let me have both Depala, Pilot Exemplar and Trusty Companion on the field at the same time. I have lived that dream, and having the hyena pilot a vehicle was pretty hilarious. For the fun in it, I threw in an Adorned Pouncer. Thus, Depala and Pets.
What The Deck Does
The deck can dole out a reasonable amount of damage over the first few turns, ramping up to some incredible beats in the later game. Depala isn't a heavily targeted brawl commander like Chandra or the Scarab God, so you'll probably survive relatively intact until mid-game. When the mid-game hits, you want to start crewing vehicles and winning ground wars, getting evasive or double-strike units in where you can. Depala can refill your hand once you have the mana to spare, though this makes you a bigger target once people figure out how valuable it is to let you tap her.
Key Cards
All the dwarves have been invaluable in playtesting, matching up very well against other creatures with the buff and crewing most everything with ease. Cards like Aerial Responder and Master Trinketeer offer ways to stabilize and stall, and Solemn Recruit can be an absolute unit. Renegade Wheelsmith is one of the more powerful turn 3 drops. Aerial Modification can turn an otherwise nonthreatening vehicle into a demanding clock. Some vehicles, such as Skysovereign, Consul Flagship and Aradara Express are difficult to answer. Cultivator's Caravan is easy to crew and useful for commander tax. Walking Ballista is a very versatile card, but I most often use it to pick off key blockers for the surprise beats. Heart of Kiran and Onward / Victory can kill a player very quickly together.
My Weird Meta Picks
Fiery Cannonade is in there because of a Hapatra deck I often match up against, which it blows out. Presumably this will be good against Saprolings in Dominaria also.
Built to Last and Built to Smash are in there because I liked being able to run both, but I'm unsure how good they actually are. I can't recall the last time they really made a difference to the state of play.
Caught in the Brights seems easy enough to activate for the exile effect, but this may not be as good as some other white enchantment effects. Perhaps I should be running Cast Out?
Questionable Picks
Sram, Senior Edificer was put in because it seems like the card draw is bonkers in these two colours, but I don't like playing a card that references equipment without running any. That may not be a good enough reason to discount this guy, though. He has drawn me three cards in a game before.
Snare Thopter was included because I thought another source of evasive damage would be useful, however, I haven't really been getting a lot out of it and would like to replace it.
Key to the City is a recent addition.
Please leave feedback and suggestions in the comments and thanks for reading Depala and Pets!
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