Brago's Realm of Eternal Stax

Commander / EDH Competitive Control Infinite Combo Multiplayer Stax WU (Azorius)

Vukodlak

Creature (14)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC
• 1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Rishadan Cutpurse
• 1x Rishadan Footpad
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Wall of Omens
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Teferi, Temporal Archmage
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Land (32)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Ancient TombGC
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 8x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 3x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Copy Artifact
• 1x Detention Sphere
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Oath of Jace
• 1x Parallax Tide
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Rising Waters
• 1x Stasis
• 1x Treachery

Artifact (27)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grim MonolithGC
• 1x Helm of Obedience
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mox DiamondGC
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Tsabo's Web
• 1x Winter Orb

Instant (9)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Delay
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Transmute Artifact
• 1x Windfall

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Eldrazi Displacer

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Rhystic StudyGC

Artifact (7)

• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Mana Web
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Thorn of Amethyst
• 1x TrinisphereGC

Instant (1)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith

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"There is no glory to be gained in the kingdom of the dead." - Vec tomb inscription

Welcome to my take on Brago, King Eternal ! I believe that Brago is most competitive when optimized around mana denial and tax elements, as his triggered ability can make these effects very asymmetrical. Other UW good-stuff builds and blink focused decks, while certainly fun, dont provide the same power level. Wins with this deck typically come in the form of combo loops, opponent concessions, and sometimes even commander damage.

You might enjoy playing this deck if:

• You embrace resource and mana denial strategies.

• You are okay with strategies that make use of the combat step.

• You enjoy winning with infinite combos.

• You like artifacts and artifact synergy.

• You play in a competitive meta and both you, and your opponents, enjoy a challenge.

You might NOT enjoy this deck if:

• You want to play a deck that's all in on Brago with cards like Reality Acid , Cloudform / Lightform , and Nevermaker .

• You would like to win with commander damage as your primary strategy - Bruna, Light of Alabaster or even Geist of Saint Traft are likely both better choices in these colors (although not necessarily as competitive!).

• You and/or your playgroup dislikes infinite combos, stax strategies, or land destruction. This is not a friendly deck.

• Your meta is full of artifact hate like Creeping Corrosion, Null Rod, and Stony Silence. However, by not being focused primarily on creatures to flicker, it does somewhat dodge typical blink-killers like Torpor Orb and Hushwing Gryff (although Containment Priest stops Brago from targeting himself).

The Gameplan Show

Time passes, time crawls; time doesnt move at all.

• Early Game (Mulligan-Turn 3): You are looking for a blend of artifact ramp, card draw/tutors, and stax elements to explode out of the gate with an early Brago, and then lock the board down. The sooner this deck sets up the better, as waiting until turn 4 means the opponents have more mana to work with to disrupt us. Great cards to see in the opening hand include accelerants: like Ancient Tomb, Crystal Vein , Sol Ring, Mox Diamond, etc., along with stax effects: Thorn of Amethyst , Tsabo's Web , and my favorite Winter Orb for after Brago is online. Counter magic may be necessary as well, depending on what you are facing to either stop opposing combos or protect Brago from removal.

• Mid-Game (Turns 4-6): Ideally you want to have Brago online with a blink target or two, at at least two mana rocks, and be working towards a hard lock of stax effects on the board. Tutor the combo piece(s) you need to win, likely Strionic Resonator and/or Rings of Brighthearth/Basalt Monolith or powerful stax effects like Tangle Wire. However, if Brago was destroyed, or worse, stolen, then you are in for an uphill battle. Your ability to mitigate stax effects goes down substantially without Brago, and now you, like your opponents, will have to navigate around your mana denial effects on equal footing. The key is to count multiple turns ahead so you always know how many lands you can tap under a Winter Orb/Hokori, Dust Drinker/ Rising Waters type lock, while still having enough mana later on. See Option 2 below for viable ways to win without Brago.

• End-Game (Turns 7+): If the game is still going on, your opponent(s) deserve props for fighting through the treasure trove of Brago's oppressive artifacts. Your strategy remains the same: tutor aggressively for a win-con and end everyones suffering.

So how DOES Brago win?

Option 1 - Brago ETB Combo Loops: Show

Its tines cannot be rung by mere physical force. Only magic of great power can start its eldritch resonance.

Strionic Resonator is the central combo piece of this deck. With Strionic Resonator on board and any mana rock or combination of rocks that produce or more mana, one can loop Bragos triggered ability indefinitely.

The combo: Strionic Resonator + Mana Rock(s) + Bragos ability + ETB ability = unlimited ETB triggers

Example: Strionic Resonator + Sol Ring + Brago, King Eternal + Venser, Shaper Savant = bounce all opponents' permanents to their hands.

It works like this:

1. Deal combat damage to a player with Brago, triggering his exile ability. Pick the non-land permanents you want to exile, and then this trigger goes on the stack.

2. While the exile trigger is on the stack, activate Strionic Resonator to copy Brago's trigger and pick new targets for the copy to include: the resonator, the mana rock(s), and any card(s) you want to flicker. This copy goes on the stack, on top of the original trigger.

3. Let the copied trigger resolve, triggering your ETB effects and returning both the resonator, the mana rock(s), and your ETB effect untapped.

4. Since the combo pieces are now untapped, they can be reused to make a new copy of Bragos trigger by repeating steps #2 & 3. You can perform this loop as many times as you would like.

Note: Bragos original trigger will no longer have any effect when it resolves after the combo, as it no longer recognizes the original targets (if they were included in the copy loop). This is because they are considered new objects after leaving and re-entering the battlefield. However, this shouldnt matter since you will have already executed your combo, and likely guaranteed the win.

Now, plug in any of the following ETB triggers to generate unlimited effects:

Venser, Shaper Savant: Return all permanents to their opponents hands. This essentially resets all opponents to a turn 1 boardstate.

Rishadan Footpad / Rishadan Brigand : Opponents sacrifice all permanents they control. There is also Rishadan Cutpurse , but most opponents can pay 1 unless she's in the combo, making her essentially useless without Brago. The other two pack more of a punch. The downside is these cards dont have flash, so you need them on the board prior to dealing combat damage with Brago (unlike Venser).

Parallax Wave /Parallax Tide: Exile all creatures/lands permanently. This one requires a bit of stack manipulation, but if you stack the "leaves the battlefield" trigger on top of exile triggers and then let the stack resolve, the creature/lands are exiled permanently. Shout out to cobblepott for his/her excellent breakdown here: Resonator Mechanics.

Wall of Omens, Tsabo's Web, Spreading Seas, Oath of Jace : Draw your whole deck. This is less useful than it sounds as we dont run flash enablers like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Leyline of Anticipation, or Vedalken Orrery. Still, you can repeat as many times as you want until you get the card(s) you are looking for (likely Venser or Blue Sun's Zenith), and then win from there.

Option 2 - Non-Brago Combo Show

Im one masterpiece away from ruling this pathetic world.

As powerful as Brago is, consistency demands that there are additional ways to win in the event that Brago becomes too expensive, is stolen, or otherwise neutralized.

Rings of Brighthearth+Basalt Monolith or Eldrazi Displacer+Peregrine Drake are the next most important combo pieces after Strionic Resonator and they are abused in similar ways. Rings + Basalt can generate unlimited colorless mana. Here is how:

1. Tap Basalt Monolith for mana.

2. Pay to untap Basalt Monolith. While this activated ability is on the stack, activate Rings of Brighthearth targeting the untap ability of Basalt (note: we cannot copy the mana ability). Both the original and the copy go on the stack.

3. Let the copy resolve, untapping Basalt Monolith. In response tap Basalt Monolith again for 3 mana. Then let the original ability resolve, untapping Basalt yet again.

4. End result: you have spent 5 mana (Rings + Basalt untap) to generate 6 mana, netting . Repeat as many times as desired for an unlimited amount of colorless mana.

Once you have unlimited mana, the following options become available:

Use Eldrazi Displacer to generate the same creature loops as combo 1. This card is also useful for tapping down opponents creatures before their combat steps, provided they don't have powerful ETB abilities.

Use Blue Sun's Zenith to deck/mill a single opponent by forcing them to draw their whole deck, then reshuffle BSZ for reuse. They will lose after their next draw step: "120.4. A player who attempts to draw a card from a library with no cards in it loses the game the next time a player would receive priority".

Furthermore, Displacer + Peregrine Drake can generate infinite mana as well in the event that Rings+Basalt are unavailable. This is a bit harder to assemble since we dont have easy access to creature tutors in UW, but it is still a good back-up plan if everything else goes wrong.

Background: A Not-so-Brief History of this Deck Show

"My rule persists beyond death itself." - Brago, King Eternal

I started playing EDH in 2014, and the Evasive Maneuvers commander product was my first foray into the format. I selected Roon of the Hidden Realm (not recognizing the raw power of Derevi, Empyrial Tactician), and, over time, my deck became the very definition of durdling for incremental value. I liked Roons exile ability, but felt he was too slow and clunky; a reality that was validated every time Roon folded vs. more competitive decks.

Enter Brago, King Eternal . As soon as he was spoiled in Conspiracy, I knew I had found my blink commander. I started brewing right away and my first list was an equipment Voltron list that tried to get cute with cards like Puresteel Paladin and Stoneforge Mystic. This quickly gave way to enchantment Voltron with cards like Vanishing , Flickerform , Traveler's Cloak, Unquestioned Authority, and Pentarch Ward. After this fell short, I tried a UW goodstuff list that was all in on Brago with cards such as Reality Acid , Nevermaker , Cloudform , Lightform , and Planeswalkers (2 activations per turn with Brago). Yet, I begrudgingly came to the conclusion that this approach incorporated too many win-more and/or Brago-centric cards. In other words, these cards are very strong with Brago online, but are underwhelming on their own. I still felt like like I wasnt unlocking Bragos full potential.

Now, one thing I have struggled with throughout all variants of my Brago lists is that I could never decide on an optimal number of counterspells. I fluctuated between 3-12 at varying points in the decks history, and could never find the sweet spot. Then I had an epiphany: rather than trying to counter opponents spells, why not prevent them from being able to cast spells in the first place? This question led me down a rabbit hole and to the dark side of MTG: it led me to the unhallowed realm of stax.

If you are unfamiliar with the term, or want a refresher, MTGS user Phil wrote the now-infamous Stax Primer which can be accessed here: The Stax primer. In a nutshell: stax strategies seek to attack the opponents resources (cards, permanents, mana) while mitigating these same negative effects on ones own resources.

Brago is an ideal commander for this type of strategy because you can tap a mana rock for mana, then exile it and return it untapped for a second use. This allows Brago to function through the mana denial effects of cards like Winter Orb, Rising Waters , and Hokori, Dust Drinker while our opponents flounder.

Notable Exclusions from the deck: Tundra , Arid Mesa, Mana Drain, Mishra's Workshop, & Mana Crypt. I would run these if I could, but alas I do not own them. Tundra is probably next on my acquire list, but that price tag...

So there you have it - my version of Brago, King Eternal . Try switching the deck category drop-down menu from "Type" to "Custom Categories" to see the different functions of each card. Please upvote if you liked the deck and/or writeup, and I welcome all constructive criticism! Happy stax'ing.

Date added	10 years
Last updated	8 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.57
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Folders	deck, EDH, Inspiration, Wish decks