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Bruse Tarl & Silas Renn - Equipment Matters Primer

Commander / EDH* Artifact Voltron

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Land (34)

Tutor (6)

Voltron Creature (4)

Draw / Card Advantage (12)

Equipment (12)

Removal (12)

Utility (2)

Commanders (2)

Commander: altered Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
Commander: Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Ramp (12)

Recursion (4)

Maybeboard

Ramp (24)

Tutor (13)

Recursion (10)

Equipment (5)

Protection (22)

Other (13)

Utility (11)

Equipment Matters (2)

Voltron Creature (1)

Voltron Creatures (21)

Removal (16)

Draw (9)

Lifelink (2)

This is an Equipment Matters Voltron styled deck using Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept.

  • By this stage the deck is clearly in version 2, and moving very closely to the final version. many changes have been made and the deck is able to hold it owns in many games.

Why We have a few different options or what we could use as our commander/s, like akiri or insert option but this isn't a Boros + Dimir deck we are building around Bruse and Silas. Silas opens up a very important colour in black.

By opening up black we have access to one of the best new artifacts in Bolas's Citadel. With us wanting to cast this to make some awesome explosive value we need to be mindful of our life total.. This is why we've opted for life link on a stick in Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and have left Akiri, Line-Slinger on the side line.

There are secondary benefits to having Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, not only is itself and artifact creature.. Very relevant to be used as fodder for Arcum Dagsson. Which puts out Bolas's Citadel But also has reanimation attached which is helpful for our equipment matters voltron pieces


Layout The deck is sorted Into custom categories to not only make it easier to see what we have but what we're trying to do.

The maybe board are options I've tested through. If you want to expand any area check these.

Opening This deck plays similar to a tribal deck in that our strength is in numbers.. So we need to be looking for opening hands that have draw in them or a tutor to some draw.

Another reason why we chose Bruse over Akiri is we have double strike on a stick..Doubke strike makes some of our draw very nice.


Early Apart from making sure we have card draw established the other goal of the early game is to pad or extend our life so that when we get out Bolas's Citadel we can explode forward...Bolas's Citadel with only 3 life.. Not good.. But with 50 life we can have a shot at alpha striking the table.

We have 5 additional sources of life link (Version 1 only had 2 extra sources) in the deck + with it stapled to Bruse we normally have it on something that's attacking.

One of key changes from Version 1 of the deck to now is that we swapped out our Voltron creatures for ones with Life link stapled on. - Serra Ascendant - T1 winning

In the sideboard We have a couple extra options that didnt make it but now with the extra lifelink built in we should have enough

  • Whip of Erebos - we aren't running a ton of creatures but giving everything life link is good...
Currently we have 6 (Started With 12, Went to 3..settled on 6) additional creatures that have been added as back ups to Bruse as Voltron viable creatures. This intentionally over laps with our lifelinker's

  • Kazuul's Toll Collector - 0 equip cost, the reason we chose this over other 0 equip cost creatures is we get to choose what we equip to Kazuul

  • Serra Ascendant - T1 winning

  • Danitha Capashen, Paragon - Such a nice little card.

  • Fiendslayer Paladin - The flex spot in this list - but pro from 2 colors that our opponents have.

  • Aurelia, the Warleader - classic, hastey body but the extra combat is important if we're winning in combat. We're also running helm of the host.. But not because of Aurelia. Just a coincidental Synergy.

  • Narset, Enlightened Master We have a low creature and land count so we should get some strong value, add in double strike drom bruse and we're good to go.


To pair with our Voltron Creatures our our Voltron Equipments.


One of the biggest changes since I started testing is the cutting of Voltron creatures. My original list had 12 creatures in it.. We just don't need that many.. Bruse is very solid and doesn't draw too much heat until he's huge. There's tons and tons of alternatives in this category of the maybe board.. Some of the ones I had and really wanted were;

  • Treachery - Just a sneaky old blue trick.. Turn the best on board Into our voltron leader

  • Zurgo Helmsmasher - If we had more board wipes I'd put this back in

  • Heavenly Blademaster - A different version had more creatures, the more creatures we have the better this is.

  • Avacyn, Angel of Hope - we can't cheat it out.. So a bit high but strong when its out.

  • Blightsteel Colossus - I cut this to avoid salt, but we could get this out early and alpha strike someone.. Turn 3 Darretti, turn 4 Blightsteel..

Citadel The strategy to win in this deck is simple.. We're going to swing in with maybe 2 big creatures, and win through massive beat downs.

Whats not so simple is how.. One of our main ways to build a board state that has game winning attacks is through the use ofBolas's Citadel, as such we have a few different ways to cheat it into play

  • Transmute Artifact - we pay 2 to cast Sac an artifact then pay the difference.. This usually means we pay 5 total to get it from our deck into play

  • Whir of Invention - 9cmc to tutor and play it.. A little slower but we do have improvise so we can normally count on 2cmc discount

  • Arcum Dagsson - such a strong card staple in many decks but in this post Paradox Engine world its found a strong home here. We don't have many artifact creatures in our deck but we do have sialas and as such will always have access to a target

  • Inventors' Fair End step tutor for the Citadel, little harder to cast but still a path.


Synergy We have many card that once they hit field synergise with each other

  • Sigarda's Aid - instant speed casting but more importantly a free equip..

  • Puresteel Paladin - 0 equip costs... So with leonin we have instant speed free equips

  • _Vedalken Archmage - Not only great value on its own but with Bolas's Citadel the biggest risk is top decking 2 lands  in a row.. But with this if we stack our triggers we can try and draw through them _ - Currently out while I test Umezawa's Jitte

As we're going all in on artifacts a simple board wipe will really set us back.. For that reason we have kept a small artifact reanimation package to help bring back our weapons.

-Scrap Trawler - classic artifact matters recursion

-Daretti, Scrap Savant - we're also running some bigger things like Darksteel Forge and if our Citadel has been removed then here it is again

-Sun Titan - Made room for this big lad, more than 80/100 cards are under 3cmc

-Open the Vaults - late game win con.. Get all our goodies back


This package is very meta dependant, if I think I'll be playing with some board wipe heavy players I'll add in some more options.. For the full list of what's been tested have a look at alternative options.

Some of the better ones that could find a place are;

This section covers some of the top alternative options that you could add depending on your play style

The Maybe Board - All of the options that I considered or tested, Most of these are viable and depending on your want then they will do fine. I kept them sorted in to the basic categories to make it easier if there's a area of the deck you want to change.


top Some of the top options that I'm trying to find a place for or think you should know about are;


Go Wide So if you wanted a go wide strategy then there's some good options available


Swamps matter sub package,

As I was looking at different ways to up the power level I re discovered Lashwrithe and Nightmare Lash in the right mana base these become a 2nd and 3rd copy of Blackblade Reforged

In order to make the switch a new mana base is needed.

1 - I had a look on gatherer and currently we would be able to add we have 11 cards that are viable with the swamp type.

2 - We add 10 fetches, I'm not a big fan of off colored fetches but while its a rule we use it.

3 - so we now effectively have 21 swamps, and we're going to end with a mana base of 32/33

4 - Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers take us to 23 lands

5 - Finish the deck with the 5 colored staples Command Tower etc and the atifacts matter lands Inventors' Fair etc

6 - Lastly we'd run Weathered Wayfarer and Expedition Map both ensure we make land drops and tutor for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

this would still enable a fine mana base, but would also give us 3 copies of Blackblade Reforged, The only issue with this is cost, I dont have the orginal dual land laying around to put in a mid powered equipment matters deck. Yes this would up the power level but not by a ton. If you have infinite $ or play with proxies then a change to the mana base and these additions are viable.

If you look at the changes below you'll notice a decent number of changes, If you want to make your own equipment matter brew then these are some tips that will make your deck better...

Getting Full Value Out of The Citadel

  • Bolas's Citadel is amazing but its more fragile than it looks, When we put a ton so much effort into getting we cant allow two lands in a row to end our turn. We have for this reason included some cards that work specifically to play around the lands.

  • Starting with the most basic tip - If you can avoid it don't play a land before you play the Citadel.

  • Scroll Rack doesn't do a ton in this deck but it will allow us to get around lands.

  • Vedalken Archmage is average, It ok dont get me wrong but its little extra value in allowing us to stack triggers around lands. Out While i test Umezawa's Jitte

  • Sram, Senior Edificer - This is a better version of Vedalken above, although can work to stack triggers around Bolas's

  • Pushing our land count down..we are sitting on 32 lands, we started with 34 but we flood out often with the amount of draw we've managed to build in. Less lands means less dead draws.


low land count


Making Sure we have the right something

  • The number of creatures in the deck that can be big beaters has changed a fair bit, originally it was 11, which was way too many then it was 3, and what would happen is that we'd not draw anything and then if our commanders got removed we'd just have no defence, so currently we're sitting on 6 in the deck apart from Bruse.

  • Of the 6 creatures that are in for beating face, 3 have life link attached already, Life link is more important than it appears...so we built in extra ways to have life link.


### Making sure we win when it works...

One of the issues this deck has had was actually winning, There was too much focus on getting a board state and not enough on winning, as a result its important to be able to get a good shot at winning when we have the chance.

To date I'd say I've had a fun time playing this glass cannon, When it works we can explode and win but like the glass cannon strategy Its fragile, Most of the changes that have been made have been in an attempt to even it out
. Nealry all of the changes below can be chalked up to the basics of EDH, more Draw, More Consistency, More Answers


s Ive been testing the deck in games, many changes have been made, these are the cards that have been cut with the reason why.

I'll list these in order of which they took place.. Most of these are just a little too slow or underwhelming

Chopping block

These are the things that are under whelming and are being considered to cut

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Revision 17 See all

(4 years ago)

-1 Intuition main
+1 Island main
-1 Mother of Runes main
+1 Plains main
Date added 5 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

14 - 0 Mythic Rares

49 - 0 Rares

23 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.81
Tokens Emblem Dack Fayden, Treasure
Folders 2019 - Non Combo Can Hang with the Big Boys - My current Favourite Decks
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