DISCLAIMER: This is not a perfected list, it's just my fun deck, made with budget restraints in mind and not meant to be hardcore-competitive. It's meant to be fun and balanced to play with friends and not tournament level play. Keep that in mind, but still, feel free to suggest any potential improvements! No EDH Deck is ever finished, so in the future, some of your suggestions might find a way into the deck!
Brago, King Eternal is the supreme blink general (No, I don't want to hear anyone starting on Roon of the Hidden Realm) and it's in Azorius colours, so it is both an excelent aggressor and token commander as he is very capable of controlling the game.
He is no Mizzix of the Izmagnus in what concerns control, that's right, but his colour combination brings a whole lot to the deck and his ability is insane when it comes to ramping into huge spells or overwhelming board positions.
If you dislike just being able to control the table until you can combo off, but you still want to play a control-ish deck while you keep pressure on the table, Brago is definitely a great general for you.
As you've seen by now, this deck is built around strong ETB triggers, and replicating them as much as possible.
Brago is one of the most popular stax generals, but I didn't want to build any oppressive deck. Brago allows for a controlling shell, and that's what I'm going for. From classic Counterspell, awesome Render Silent, to Cyclonic Rift, with multiple Archaeomancers on the mix, I feel pretty comfortable dealing with threats around the table playing this deck.
Play Brago soon, start commiting relevant ETB permanents to the table, and start gaining exponential advantage from attacking with the general. The fact that most of our creatures are flyers usually makes us have enough evasion to win games just swinging unblocked for a few turns, while still being able to protect ourselves with countermagic and removal.
Of course, playing Brago, I had to include it's infinite combo. It's pretty easy to assemble these pieces in this deck, even if sometimes (more than you'd think) the deck grinds out the win without it.
Brago, King Eternal + Strionic Resonator + Sol Ring / Thran Dynamo / Cloud of Faeries / Peregrine Drake / Drowner of Hope + Altar of the Brood
Brago's ability goes on the stack, Strionic Resonator copies it, the copy resolves first, you blink everything, then you get a chance to copy the original ability again, you just need a way to produce at least mana with each blink.
For all intents and purposes I consider Altar of the Brood to be the combo finisher. Infinite permanents entering the battlefield, infinite mill around the table.
Thought-Knot Seer also mills out everyone, but for each blink it is drawing one opponent a card. If they have untapped mana they might have an answer. And it is much more annoying to resolve if someone wants to draw their deck in search for an answer.
Finally Cloudform and Lightform let you manifest your whole deck. The safest way to pull this, is to manifest until you find your Altar of the Brood and blink its manifest token to get the Altar on the battlefield.
If you don't have the pieces for the instant win, this loop is always relevant since all the deck is based on ETB abilities, so there are numerous ways to take advantage of it.
The way Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere work, their entry trigger goes on the stack, but they leave the battlefield before it resolves. Once you stop the loop, you still get the exile triggers, but the enchantments aren't there anymore so they won't leave the battlefield, leaving all your targets permanently exiled.
Knight-Captain of Eos, Geist-Honored Monk, Drowner of Hope make infinite tokens, but against a board wipe in the next turn cycle or any type of prison deck that doesn't win the game either.
Rishadan Brigand forces your opponents to sacrifice all permanents, and it is unlikely they want to keep playing after that, but it technically doesn't win the game on the spot either.
Augury Owl let's you reorder your whole deck in any order you want, due to its scry 3, and Mulldrifter draws your whole deck if you want to.
Actual list as of November 1st, 2016.
I have a few EDH decks by now, and the list is growing. Brago is surely my deck with the jankiest mana base and it has been of no consequence to me so far. Just 2 colors with the ability to ramp like crazy blinking mana rocks make these choices very forgiving. I'm not running Command Tower since I don't feel the need, and eventually all my other decks seem to need the copies I own more than Brago ever did.
I chose to remove the maybeboard from the decklist to keep everything neatly organized, you can check the cards I've been considering and the ones you've been suggesting in here:
Given the fact that I can't seem to find a fair priced
Deadeye Navigator anywhere near me and I can actually win the game faster by fetching some artifacts than blinking value with the navigator, I'm trying out the list without it for now.
Out > Deadeye Navigator
In > Trinket Mage
Whenever I can find a fair priced Deadeye Navigator it is still one of the first picks to include back in the list. (If somehow Deepglow Skate doesn't manage to get it banned first)
I've recently moved a few cards around decks and found out I was playing without my
Strionic Resonator after a couple of games. While I gathered all the cards and re-completed the deck, I felt like I should make a change regarding the mana base. I've experienced a few inconsistent draws and I'd either get mana screwed or I drew all my lands in a row. I've thought about bringing
Seashell Cameo back in, but given that it's costed 3 and not 2 like a Signet (and I don't own any spare
Azorius Signets, I ended up adding an additional land. I have a few card draw sources that most of the times both make up for the rare mana flood occasions, and in that situation they are most definitely at their best, while an additional mana rock wouldn't be that relevant early game (before Brago) and would just pile up late game, so, I ended up favouring the 38th land. I took out the most hit-or-miss card on
Clone, which was rarely relevant and rarely took advantage from Brago triggers.
With the recent release of Modern Masters 2017, some very interesting cards dropped significantly in price. One of those was Venser and I knew I had to get him in this deck somehow.
IN > Venser, Shaper Savant
OUT > Vedalken Orrery
After some careful consideration, I ended up cutting the orrery. It served a function, allowing me to combo off on the spot if I didn't have Altar of the Brood or any of the Manifest Auras but had something that drew cards on ETB, allowing me to flash the altar in whenever I found it. But ultimately, it was a very situational card, and if I end up looping Brago Triggers infinitely without anyone dealing with my engine, odds are, I'll be looking good to win. Venser is not situational like the Orrery, it's always useful, it's both protection if I need to bounce something back to my hand, and a finisher, working in a similar way to Oblivion Ring while comboing off, doesn't exile, but bounces everything, including lands, to our opponents hands making it impossible for them to react to me or outpace me for the remainder of the game, which makes it just as effective as winning on the spot.
This one had a long time coming, since the Archmage was at a pretty high price and my one copy was in my Marchesa deck. Lately Marchesa has been poorly positioned inside my playgroup, so I've played her less and less and that lead to Glen Elendra Archmage to move to Brago. It's an important control piece that I can blink each turn for an almost endless counterspell, while Topplegeist was only in there because it did something for a very low CMC. As I've played this deck more and more, I've come to the conclusion that I very rarely play creatures before Brago, favoring Ramp to get him out soon and ramp further as soon as he hits, so 1CMC that taps for the turn is not that exciting.
I hadn't updated Brago in a while since I've been playing new and exciting decks, while Brago was working like clockwork. Rivals of Ixalan made Brago look really exciting again, so I had to make a few tweaks and I'm definitely picking up this deck more often in the next months.
Well Azor, the Lawbringer pretty much belongs in a Brago deck, so here it is! RIX spoilers made me want to play Brago again, with just a couple of tweaks. Induced Amnesia seems great in whatever situation in this deck, first of all as a way to dig deeper into the deck, but later, as an alternate win condition in the Strionic Resonator combo, targeting our opponents with each blink. It was hard to figure out what to cut, but ultimately I went to big mana cards: Duplicant (could also have been Phyrexian Ingester but personally I prefer this last one) and Diluvian Primordial. The primordial is amazing, but by the time you hit it it's just a winmore card, while in comparison, the two new inclusions are win-faster cards, digging deep into the deck and locking the game, in Azor's case. I'm really excited to play this deck after this update!