Brago does Degenerate Stuff on a Budget

Commander / EDH Budget Competitive Control Land Destruction Pillow Fort WU (Azorius)

WarSword007

Creature (25)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Deceiver Exarch
• 1x Diluvian Primordial
• 1x Glimmerpoint Stag
• 1x Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
• 1x Knight-Captain of Eos
• 1x Kor Cartographer
• 1x Lavinia of the Tenth
• 1x Luminate Primordial
• 1x Mnemonic Wall
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Nevermaker
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Reflector Mage
• 1x Resolute Archangel
• 1x Riftwing Cloudskate
• 1x Scourge of Fleets
• 1x Sphinx of Uthuun
• 1x Stonehorn Dignitary
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Sunblast Angel
• 1x Vedalken Dismisser
• 1x Whirler Rogue

Instant (6)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Faith's Reward
• 1x Ghostly Flicker
• 1x Momentary Blink
• 1x Render Silent

Land (36)

• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 1x Azorius Guildgate
• 1x Blighted Cataract
• 1x Boreal Shelf
• 1x Coastal Tower
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drifting Meadow
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 8x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Meandering River
• 8x Plains
• 1x Prahv, Spires of Order
• 1x Remote Isle
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Sejiri Refuge
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tranquil Cove
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Meadow

Artifact (13)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Prophetic Prism
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Spine of Ish Sah
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Winter Orb

Commander (1)

Enchantment (15)

• 1x Act of Authority
• 1x Banishing Light
• 1x Cloudform
• 1x Exclusion Ritual
• 1x Lightform
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Nevermore
• 1x Oblivion Ring
• 1x Parallax Tide
• 1x Pentarch Ward
• 1x Reality Acid
• 1x Rising Waters
• 1x Stasis
• 1x Traveler's Cloak
• 1x Unquestioned Authority

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Plea for Guidance
• 1x Savor the Moment
• 1x Sudden Disappearance

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Maybeboard

Creature (14)

• 1x Auramancer
• 1x Eldrazi Displacer
• 1x Flickerwisp
• 1x Great Whale
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1x Kiri-Onna
• 1x Mistmeadow Witch
• 1x Pestermite
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Separatist Voidmage
• 1x Subjugator Angel
• 1x Tower Geist
• 1x Wonder
• 1x Yomiji, Who Bars the Way

Instant (9)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Cloudshift
• 1x Essence Flux
• 1x Ghostway
• 1x Liberate
• 1x Orim's Chant
• 1x Otherworldly Journey
• 1x Silence
• 1x Turn to Mist

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Flicker

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Detention Sphere
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Parallax Wave
• 1x Skybind

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Jace, Architect of Thought
• 1x Venser, the Sojourner

Artifact (1)

• 1x Panharmonicon

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The title says it all

**

Disclaimer: This deck is extremely degenerate and is not recommended for casual playgroups or new players!!!**

This Brago deck is for players who want to be as competitive as possible on a limited budget. This deck will cost under $50 dollars on TCG, which is reasonable for most players. This in-depth guide is here to explain the reasoning behind every card in this deck, and how it is meant to operate.

Deck Description

Brago, King Eternal is an extremely powerful card, even more so as a commander. This deck functions as a lockout deck, where the goal is to win by preventing EVERYONE ELSE from playing Magic the Gathering. Brago, King Eternal allows us to break the symmetry of cards like Stasis and Winter Orb by blinking artifacts or creatures that untap lands, such as Commander's Sphere or Peregrine Drake. If all goes according to plan, the pilot of this deck will be the only person able to cast spells on their turn and have multiple, abusable effects that will allow them to control the board and snowball to victory. Again, this deck is NOT for casual playgroups and was designed to be extremely competitive. Do not build or play this deck if you don't think it will be accepted at the kitchen table.

Lands

We are running 36 lands in this deck, which is perfectly reasonable in commander. Feel free to play more and make cuts, but I strongly feel that going below 36 lands is risky in commander. Many of the lands are simply dual-colored taplands, of which I won't be discussing. There also some amount of basics, because we want to be able to play a majority of our spells on curve. This section is to highlight the rest of the land base.

Blighted Cataract : Comes into play untapped, and allows us to sacrifice it to draw cards in the late game or we are in desperate need of a source of card advantage.

Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse: Simple and efficient mana fixers on a budget. They also thin the deck of lands to a lesser extent, and are awesome in conjunction with Sun Titan.

Cycling Lands: These are Drifting Meadow , Lonely Sandbar, Remote Isle, and Secluded Steppe. Can be cycled to draw a card and can be bounced with Azorius Chancery or recurred via Sun Titan.

Azorius Chancery: Cheap and efficient, provides some amount of card advantage by producing two mana, smoothing what could've been an otherwise awkward draw, but sometimes has us discard as a result. Also bounces the aforementioned cycling lands.

Prahv, Spires of Order : While the effect is expensive, it can also be used to protect yourself from a gigantic threat in a pinch.

Rogue's Passage: Allows us to give Brago, King Eternal or some of our larger threats some much needed evasion.

The Vivid Lands: Vivid Creek and Vivid Meadow serve as cheap mana fixers for the early game.

Instants and Sorceries

Brago, King Eternal lacks a lot of synergy with spells, and prefers permanents to enable his shenanigans. However, some do manage to find their way into this deck, as they enable some of our more broken combos, in some cases, without the need of our commander.

Day of Judgment: It's important to have at least one board wipe in any deck that can play one. While it's not the best, Wrath of God and Supreme Verdict didn't cut it with the budget restraints. It's also a very one-sided effect when followed up with Faith's Reward.

Plea for Guidance: This deck is very heavy on the enchantments compared to most other Brago, King Eternal decks. You have one for almost any situation, and Plea for Guidance lets you search up two, including Rising Waters.

Savor the Moment: Infinite turns??? Sign me up. With Brago, King Eternal on the board, everything untaps, so who needs an untap step? With an Archaeomancer or Mnemonic Wall in play one can have infinite turns as long as there are enough rocks available to cast this spell, or even Peregrine Drake.

Sudden Disappearance: While expensive on the mana, it effectively lets you pull off your combos an additional time or replace Brago, King Eternal with an Archaeomancer or Mnemonic Wall in play.

Counterspell: Arguably the most infamous effect in Magic the Gathering: the ability to counter spells. For two blue mana, you gain the ability to tell an opponent "no" to casting any spell.

Eerie Interlude: Better Sudden Disappearance. Combos well with Wrath of God and effective for blanking opposing removal or board wipes. It's utility over Sudden Disappearance is that it's available for three less mana at instant speed.

Faith's Reward: Protects against board wipes or removal and can make our board wipes one-sided.

Ghostly Flicker: Ghostly Flicker is one of the better blinking spells available to us. We can blink two permanents, with the exception of enchantments. It has endless possibilities when paired with a Mnemonic Wall and/or Archaeomancer. The most powerful combo using this card in our deck is when paired with a Mnemonic Wall or Archaeomancer and Peregrine Drake to produce infinite mana. Just tap five lands, float some mana, Ghostly Flicker, untap the lands with Peregrine Drake and get Ghostly Flicker back with Mnemonic Wall or Archaeomancer.

Momentary Blink: Lets us blink twice with one card, which is great value.

Render Silent : When we can blink Archaeomancer or Mnemonic Wall once a turn, we can prevent an opponent from casting spells for the rest of the game. Silence or Orim's Chant can also be used to the same effect, but Render Silent is also a Counterspell and Silence while Orim's Chant costs $8 and up.

Artifacts

Artifacts have a lot of synergy with Brago, King Eternal. When a permanent is blinked, it enters the battlefield untapped. This means we can abuse our artifacts by using them before combat and the untapping them to use them again after combat. This also lets us break the symmetry of Stasis effects by:

1. Letting us produce mana to pay for Stasis.
2. Letting us produce mana to actually cast spells.

By breaking the symmetry, we lock our opponents out of the game without locking ourselves out of the game.

Azorius Signet: Both fixes and ramps for two mana. Has the upside of helping us pay for Stasis.

Basalt Monolith: Ideally, we won't be paying to untap this artifact: we'll be untapping it via blink by Brago, King Eternal. It lets us ramp three mana for three mana.

Commander's Sphere: Ramps and can produce blue mana to pay for Stasis. Can also be sacrificed for free to draw a card in the late game or if it will otherwise be destroyed.

Conjurer's Closet: Free blink after every turn. What's not to love? Enables some of our combos without Brago, King Eternal.

Darksteel Ingot: It's indestructible, and can pay for Stasis.

Hedron Archive: Let's us produce two extra mana or draw some extra cards.

Mind Stone: Baby Hedron Archive.

Prophetic Prism: Fixes our mana so we can pay for Stasis with our colorless producing mana rocks. Also draws us a card and can be blinked with Brago, King Eternal for steady card advantage.

Sol Ring: The most powerful card in commander, and rightly so. In EDH, a format where you either want more cards or more mana, a card that produces two mana for one is absurd.

Spine of Ish Sah: Vindicate on a giant rock. Blink it with Brago, King Eternal. Laugh as all of your opponents' permanents slowly crumble to ash.

Strionic Resonator: Lets us abuse an ETB twice! Note that if you try to copy the ability of Brago, King Eternal, the first will fizzle because all the targets of the first ability left the battlefield after the resolution of the second. However, we can actually perform infinite flickers if we can flicker something or somethings that will produce two mana. The process goes like this:

1. Trigger the ability of Brago, King Eternal.
2. Copy it on the stack with Strionic Resonator in response.
3. Let the copied ability resolve, making sure to target both Strionic Resonator and the things you need to produce two mana.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, copying the original trigger that is still on the stack.
5. Have a payoff on the battlefield, like Riftwing Cloudskate, which becomes a one-sided Upheaval .

Swiftfoot Boots: Gives Brago, King Eternal or another creature hexproof and haste for an equip of one. An argument could be made for Lightning Greaves, but it may be essential to be able to blink Brago, King Eternal while under the effects of Stasis. Lightning Greaves is also over the budget.

Winter Orb: One of the most powerful cards in Magic. A relic of the past, where artifacts used to be enchantments except they only did stuff while untapped. In an old standard, a deck once revolved around tapping Winter Orb at the end of your opponent's turn so you could untap, but effectively locking your opponent out on their turn.

Enchantments

Many enchantments also have some surprising synergy with Brago, King Eternal, such as making him unblockable or adding card advantage, both extremely important to fueling the deck's engine.

Act of Authority: Revoke Existence on a stick with upside. While it may come up rarely, you will almost never use the second ability on this card.

Banishing Light: Lets you exile a nonland permanent with added flexibility of being able to move it to a more threatening, nonland permanent.

Cloudform: While it may seem strange that both Cloudform and it's counterpart Lightform are included in this deck, they are a staple in every Brago, King Eternal deck. When a manifested permanent is blinked, it returns face up. You can also blink the enchantment to manifest another card.

Exclusion Ritual: Similar to Banishing Light but the exiled permanent will never come back.

Lightform : See Cloudform above.

Mystic Remora: It's like Rhystic Circle . Although it does have an upkeep cost, you can blink it to reset the upkeep, or let it die and get it back with Sun Titan. As an added bonus, most opponents won't pay 4 mana to stop you from drawing a card if they can help it.

Nevermore: Nevermore shall Uril, the Miststalker be cast.

Oblivion Ring: Similar to Banishing Light, except it can hit your permanents if you're not careful. You can also blink it in response to the ETB trigger to exile the first ETB target permanently. Neat trick that can be pulled off while blinking it simultaneously with Glimmerpoint Stag via Brago, King Eternal or Sudden Disappearance.

Parallax Tide: Lets you exile 4 lands for a turn, every turn. The same trick as with Oblivion Ring above can be achieved, except you can exile 5 lands, which is bonkers.

Pentarch Ward: Makes a creature unblockable and draws us a card when flickered. Note that Brago, King Eternal won't be able to flicker himself if you name blue or white.

Reality Acid: Play it on a permanent, flicker it, and reattach it to anything. It doesn't matter if the permanent has shroud or hexproof. When you flicker Reality Acid, note that the permanent it was attached to before was sacrificed. That permanent is gone, even if it was indestructible.

Rising Waters: An expensive Winter Orb.

Stasis: One of our best lockout effects. If we can blink something that can produce blue mana, we can prevent all of our opponents from ever untapping again.

Traveler's Cloak: Make a creature unblockable. Blink to draw a card.

Unquestioned Authority: Same as above, except Brago, King Eternal won't be able to blink himself. This is especially important while under the effects of Stasis.

Creatures

Creatures are the most notable targets for blinking. Many creature come pre-equipped with some extremely powerful ETB effects, and we are ready to abuse them. Power at any cost, except there are really only costs in black. Bonus points if you get the reference.

Archaeomancer: Lets us buyback any of our spells. Can enable infinite combos with Ghostly Flicker and Peregrine Drake. You may want to consider including Blue Sun's Zenith to abuse this effect, enabling you to draw your entire deck with infinite mana and draw combos and then kill all of your opponents by making them draw their entire decks. Remember that Blue Sun's Zenith shuffles upon resolution.

Deadeye Navigator: One of the more powerful cards in our deck. It allows us to abuse the ETB effects of our other creatures or even dodge removal. Note that when paired with Peregrine Drake, you can create infinite mana.

Deceiver Exarch: Once part of the combo with Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker that once dominated modern, it has since dropped to budget prices. Can tap or untap things, like our opponent's lands or our lands to pay for Stasis.

Diluvian Primordial: A straight value creature. Let's us copy spells from each of our opponents' graveyards.

Glimmperpoint Stag: An abusable flicker effect.

Heliod's Pilgrim: Let's us fetch our numerous auras, including Reality Acid but not Cloudform or Lightform .

Hokori, Dust Drinker: Winter Orb on a stick.

Knight-Captain of Eos : Let's us make a bunch of tokens that we can use to Holy Day, or more commonly known as a Fog effect.

Kor Cartographer: Repeatable ramp.

Lavinia of the Tenth: This creature can lock some of our opponents out of the game entirely if not dealt with. Especially powerful against Krenko, Mob Boss decks.

Luminate Primordial: Lets us Swords to Plowshares a creature each opponent controls.

Mnemonic Wall: Archaeomancer with a better body for an additional mana.

Mulldrifter: Pauper All-Star Mulldrifter gives us crazy amounts of card advantage.

Nevermaker: We can lock an opponent out of drawing any new cards by using this creature to put a nonland permanent on top of their deck, that they will then draw each turn, possibly even forcing them not to play nonland permanents to dig for an answer. Remember that Nevermaker only triggers when it leaves play.

Peregrine Drake: Enables us to pay for Stasis and possibly cast spells. Also has some pretty hilarious shenanigans when combined with Ghostly Flicker and Archaeomancer or Mnemonic Wall.

Reflector Mage: Standard All-Star Reflector Mage. For a measly three mana, we can use Reflector Mage to gain a huge tempo swing over our opponent which we can then continue to abuse.

Resolute Archangel: Unless our opponent can prevent us from gaining life or reversing the effect, we cannot be killed unless an opponent can one shot us or win through an alternative method, like commander damage.

Riftwing Cloudskate: Bounce any permanent, even lands. You can use Riftwing Cloudskate to bounce an opponent's most expensive permanent or lock them into their current mana situation.

Scourge of Fleets : While the island count is relatively low, the payoff is worth it if we have enough islands to make it count. It becomes an abusable, one-sided Evacuation under the right circumstances.

Sphinx of Uthuun : Commander staple Fact or Fiction on a 5/6 flying body.

Stonehorn Dignitary: It's ETB reads: "Target opponent has: skips their combat step for the duration of the game."

Sun Titan: One of the cycle of five titans, with the others being Frost Titan, Inferno Titan, Primeval Titan, and Grave Titan. Seeing play in modern Emeria, The Sky Ruin or Thopter Midrange decks, Sun Titan can recur many of our mana rocks, creatures, enchantments, and, most notably, Winter Orb and Stasis.

Sunblast Angel: A one-sided board wipe on a stick. Any creature without indestructible or vigilance in any form can't attack, lest they be destroyed by the power of the sun. Remember that you can attack with your other creatures and blink them with Brago, King Eternal to protect them from the ETB.

Vedalken Dismisser : A worse, more expensive Nevermaker.

Whirler Rogue : Whirler Rogue makes tokens and lets us make our creatures unblockable. Whirler Rogue also has a special place in the deck, letting us tap Winter Orb and another artifact to make a permanent unblockable and Negate the effect of Winter Orb on our turn. Be careful to do this only on the end step before your turn, otherwise your opponents will be released from Winter Orb as well.

The Maybeboard

The maybeboard was included as a response to ahonesty13 and his/her suggestions. The maybeboard includes cards that may otherwise be outside of budget, were not included, or could replace the Stasis effects in this deck to create a more friendly, less competitive, and cheaper version of this deck. If your friends or playgroup want you to tone things down a little, they're nice to include as replacements for the more aggressive and broken effects included in this deck.

Other Things to do with the Infinite Ghostly Flicker Combo

Remember how I said that the combo makes infinite mana? Well, you can use that mana to make infinite flickers, granted one of the flicker targets is Archaeomancer or Mnemonic Wall. Get creative, and look to see what you can do with all those bounces. The old Pauper deck, Esper Familiars, which fell apart with the banning of Cloud of Faeries, was based around using the familiars, Sunscape Familiar and Nightscape Familiar, to create infinite loops.

Conclusion

Feel free to give me some suggestions in the comments below. Criticism is always welcome, as long as it's not intentionally destructive in nature. Give me a +1 if you like the deck, to give me an idea of how I've done. If you didn't like the deck, tell me why, and how I might improve it. Remember, this deck is NOT for casual playgroups, and is designed so that you, the reader of this primer, can compete with that jerk who shows up with his all foil Maelstrom Wanderer deck that everyone teams up against and somehow still manages to win. I'll make another deck if there is enough support for this one.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Exclude colors	BRG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 34 - 0 Uncommons 21 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.92
Tokens	Manifest 2/2 C, Soldier 1/1 W, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	Brago: Degenerate, Azorius, Decks I Want, Interested Decks, Budget, buget edh decks, EDH Ideas, EDH derp, Interested budget decks, Budget