Budget casual Breya with artifact combos using Breya as wincon, power level 6. Includes 43 artifacts.


Combos



*Desc Updated: Dec, 2016.*


This deck is midrange, combo and ramp. Ramp and midrange strategies are here to help to set up an infinite combo with Breya. It's four color with as the primary color, as secondary and and a tie for tertiary. Each color has an identity: blue is for draw, counterspells, and artifact tutors, white is for removal and Eldrazi Displacer, red is for graveyard recursion and black is for unconditional tutors. It uses a $56 manabase which includes Academy Ruins with four lands which come into play tapped. The primary way of winning is assembling an infinite combo with Breya. Other ways are reanimating monster artifact creatures or attacking with a large army of Thopters.


Infinite Combos with Breya

Breya is the Commander General, she's also a vital combo piece from the Command Zone. There are several three card combinations which include Breya in play together that can either make infinite colorless mana, do infinite damage, gain infinite life, create infinite tokens or kill all my opponent's creatures. These combos create an infinite loop with a net gain of one Thopter or colorless mana or one mana of any color each cycle. The Thopters can then be sacrificed to both make colorless mana and to pay for Breya's ability costs. The only infinite combos being used are the ones using three cards which includes Breya. All other more complex combos are not included in this deck such as Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek + Ashnod's Altar they are just too hard to assemble given the budget resources I have access too.


The first combo is Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Breya, Etherium Shaper. This combo creates infinite Thopter tokens which can then be sacrificed with Altar and Breya to use Breya's abilities. Breya and the two Thopters she creates are creatures they can be sacrificed with Altar to make colorless mana. This mana can then be used to pay the with Deathmantle to bring back Breya. How this combo works it starts off with Breya and two Thopters. Sac Breya and one Thopter with Altar making colorless mana. With Deathmantle in play use the mana to return Breya to play creating two new Thopters. I can now repeat this process gaining one Thopter each time Breya is sacrificed and returned with Deathmantle.

*Note: Krark-Clan Ironworksfoil can replace Ashnod's Altar in this combo.*


The second combo is using Eldrazi Displacer instead of Nim Deathmantle. It's Eldrazi Displacer + Ashnod's Altar + Breya, Etherium Shaper. This combo makes infinite colorless mana which can then be used to blink Breya with Displacer to make Thopters. These Thopters can then be sacrificed to use Breya's abilities. Sacrificing two Thopters with Altar makes use to blink Breya with Displacer creating two new Thopters leaving me with colorless mana. I can now repeat this process gaining each time two Thopters are sacrificed with Altar.

*Note: Krark-Clan Ironworksfoil can replace Ashnod's Altar in this combo.*


The third combo is Grand Architect + Pili-Pala + Breya, Etherium Shaper they combine for infinite mana of any combination of colors and a single use of one of Breya's abilities each cycle. This combo does require a blue source, land or mana rock to first make Pili blue using Architect's ability to make artifact creatures blue. Once Pili is blue I can tap him to make using Architect's mana ability. I then use that mana to untap Pili making one mana of any color; continuously tapping and untapping Pili to make infinite mana of any combinations of colors which can be used to cast Breya from the Command Zone. Breya and one of the Thopters she creates can then be sacrificed to use one of her abilities. Breya can then be cast again from the Command Zone adding each time she is cast from there. This can be done infinitely as long as Pili keeps making one mana.


Grand Architect is not just a infinite combo piece with Breya, but he's also just a great creature with her because Breya and the two Thopters she creates are blue. They all can be tapped even the same turn they are played or created for colorless mana. This colorless mana can be used to cast other artifacts or use activated abilities of artifacts. Breya's activated ability costs which happens to be the same amount of colorless mana that one blue creature can make with Architect in play.

Architect is one of the best artifact ramp creatures with Breya because I can tap Breya + two blue Thopters + Architect to make . This eight colorless mana can then be used to play any number of large colorless artifacts way ahead of the curve. There are some interesting interactions, mini-combos that Architect and Breya make:

  1. Breya, Etherium Shaper + two blue Thopters + Grand Architect + Thopter Assembly
    I can tap Breya + two blue Thopters + Architect to make I then use and sac both Thopters using one of Breya abilities. With the left I can play Assembly and then on my next upkeep get five new Thopters and Assembly back into my hand to repeat.

  2. Breya, Etherium Shaper + two blue Thopters + Grand Architect + Spine of Ish Sah + one other mana
    I can tap Breya + two blue Thopters + Architect to make I then use to play Spine. Adding an additional one mana from any source and using it with the remaining I can sac Spine and one Thopter using one of Breya's abilities returning Spine to my hand to repeat next turn.

Other notable interactions with Architect are with Steel Hellkite, Shimmer Myr and Darksteel Forge. I can use any mana that Architect makes for Hellkite's activated abilities making an attack by him disastrous for any opponent. Shimmer gives artifacts flash being able to ramp artifacts into play at instant speed using mana from Architect is powerful. I prefer to cheat Darksteel Forge into play with graveyard artifact recursion, but tapping Breya, Etherium Shaper + two blue Thopters + Grand Architect + one other mana from any source makes to ramp Forge into play bypassing the graveyard entirely.


Explanation of Card Choices

The main win condition is to assemble a three card infinite combo that includes Breya tutoring for the other two combo pieces is very important. Unconditional tutors such as Demonic Tutor and Gamble are powerful because they can get nonartifact combo pieces such as Grand Architect and Eldrazi Displacer as well as any other card such as Arcum Dagsson and ways to protect the combo, Padeem, Consul of Innovation. Due to the budget I can't use as many of these great unconditional tutors that I would like to. Currently two are being used. These tutors take the place of the not as versatile artifact only tutors such as Reshape. Enlightened Tutor and Fabricatefoil are artifact only tutor spells in this deck.


Arcum Dagsson, Tezzeret the Seeker and Kuldotha Forgemaster are more artifact only tutors; they can get any of the combo artifacts and instead of putting them into my hand they put them right into play. All three can be used more than once, even every turn to tutor; having a repeatable tutoring effect to get artifacts into play is very beneficial. Both Arcum and Forgemaster require me to sacrifice artifact(s) to tutor for other artifact(s) which is very good with Breya and Thopters; using them as sac fodder to tutor for other artifacts.

Breya is an artifact; she's a repeatable sac outlet from the Command Zone for both Forgemaster or Dagsson to put other artifacts into play. She is especially good with Dagsson because he only requires one artifact creature to be sacrificed to tutor. I can sac her get any artifact such as Krark-Clan Ironworksfoil put it into play and cast her again next turn adding an additional to her casting cost each time she is cast from the Command Zone.


I'm also using other means of finding important artifacts. Trinket Mage has many targets including Skullclamp which is an excellent draw engine with 1/1 Thopters, Sol Ring, artifact lands such as Seat of the Synod and catch-all artifacts that can interact with my opponent(s), Dispeller's Capsule and Nihil Spellbomb. Treasure Mage can tutor for Sharuum the Hegemon, Spine of Ish Sah, Darksteel Forge, the Thopter producing cards Sharding Sphinx and Thopter Assembly as well as many other artifacts. Both are creatures they can be blinked by Eldrazi Displacer for additional value.


Thirst for Knowledge, Faithless Looting, Cathartic Reunion and Careful Study do two important things for this deck at the same time, draw cards and put artifacts into the graveyard. Wheels such as Windfall can be another excellent draw spell while at the same time putting artifacts into the graveyard. An early turn Windfall can give me a huge advantage in a game. I wish this deck could use other wheels such as Wheel of Fortune, but it's too expensive. Other draw spells that can also dig for more specific cards are Fact or Fiction, Impulse and Lim-Dul's Vault each gives me at instant speed some selection of the cards.

Lim-Dul's digs five cards deep into my library any number of times after the first for the cost of one life. The five card combination I choose can then be arranged anyway I choose on the top of my library. It can find any number of five card combinations which is helpful to find not only artifact combo pieces, but nonartifact support cards like Swan Song or a removal spell such as Anguished Unmaking as well as sculpt my draws for the next five turns.


A secondary theme is recurring artifacts from the graveyard and putting them directly into play. Sharuum the Hegemon is the best at doing this because she can get any artifact from the graveyard this includes dead combo pieces such as Ashnod's Altar as well as artifacts that have been discarded such as Spine of Ish Sah, Darksteel Forge or Phyrexian Metamorph. Strengthening this recurring theme are other cards which require me to sac another artifact I control to put an artifact from the graveyard back into play. Daretti, Scrap Savant, Trash for Treasure and Goblin Welderfoil are all good with Breya and Thopters; being able to sac her or a Thopter to put any artifact in the graveyard directly into play.

Getting back nonartifact creatures from the graveyard such as combo pieces, Grand Architect or Eldrazi Displacer is also important. Phyrexian Reclamation can be a repeatable effect to continually get back dead creatures putting them into my hand.



Mass artifact recurring spells, Open the Vaults and Scrap Mastery are another part of this theme. Both are versatile being able to bring back a large amount of artifacts at once or a small amount. Both are great with Breya because before casting either of them I can sac all artifacts to use her abilities and then get them all back.



Thopter Assembly and Sharding Sphinx both add a theme of Thopters because other than Breya they're the best producers of Thopters. Assembly is very good with Breya because I can use Breya to sac Thopters to use her abilities which can clear the battlefield of Thopters allowing Assembly to make five more and be returned to my hand to repeat. Sphinx has the ability to double my Thopter army because when any artifact creature including herself deals combat damage to a player I can create a Thopter for each creature that dealt damage. Sphinx herself doesn't have to do damage to get this trigger any artifact creature that deals damage to a player can which is absurd. Sphinx gives me real incentive to want to attack with Thopters. Sphinx, Thopters and Bident of Thassa make quite the trio; doubling my army each turn while at the same time drawing a lot of cards.


Thopter Spy Network and Bident of Thassa give me even more incentive to attack with Thopters because both let me draw cards when my creatures do damage to a player. Network also makes a Thopter each turn as long as I have an artifact in play which is great as a constant way to make an artifact each turn. Bident can create huge card advantage because every Thopter that does damage to my opponent afterwards I get to draw a card for each one, potentially drawing 5-6+ cards. Unlike Network that only lets me draw one card after any number of Thopters do damage to a player.


Four color is the base color combination of this deck. Mana rocks help with these color requirements: Signets such as Izzet Signet, others that can make mana of any color such as Chromatic Lantern and colorless mana such as Sol Ring. They're also all artifacts which is perfect with Breya; when they're no longer needed to make mana they can be sacrificed to use her abilities. This deck is using 11 mana rocks they not only fix colors of mana, but are also excellent at ramping into higher mana cost cards ahead of the curve. Ramp is important because Breya is a very mana hungry Commander because are needed each time I want to use her ability. Breya is also sacrificed a lot to use her own ability, but also to use other cards that require an artifact be sacrificed. Each time she's cast from the Command Zone an additional must be paid which can add up quick without having ramp. Mana rocks also allow me to keep a lower land count than most Commander decks, 32-33x lands is all I need because of them.

Lantern is by far the most important mana rock in this deck because of it's ability to both completely fix mana by letting me use any land for any color as well as being able to tap it to make any color of mana. If I could have any card in my opening hand it would be Lantern, even over Sol Ring, it's that good.

Grand Architect is not a mana rock, but he can be tapped as well as any other blue creature to make colorless mana which is excellent to use Breya's abilities, pay additional Commander casting costs and ramp into any large artifacts such as Spine of Ish Sah.


Protecting artifacts thus protecting the infinite combos are important. This deck is using three different ways to protect artifacts. Darksteel Forge makes all artifacts I control indestructible. Padeem, Consul of Innovation gives them hexproof and Shimmer Myr gives them flash letting me cast them at instant speed at any point of a game which is amazing with Breya.


Spells that exile artifacts such as Merciless Eviction are scary. Counterspells are my way of protecting the infinite combos and artifacts from exile spells. Swan Song is the best at doing this because it can hard counter any instant or sorcery spell for only . Negate can also do this as well as hard counter Planeswalkers. The original Counterspell is in this deck because it's a hard counter to any spell. Breya's ability and Krark-Clan Ironworksfoil can be used to sac artifacts in response to prevent exile, but sometimes I just need a hard counter to prevent this.


Suggestions

Updates Add

I've decided to double the budget of this deck. Instead of having a max budget of $110 it's now $210. The $100 budget is just not good enough for all the cards I want to include to use combo with Breya. Arcum Dagsson is the main culprit for this change. He has jumped/doubled in price. He's too vital to this deck to cut. He can't fit into the $100 budget without cutting some decent lands such as Mana Confluence and City of Brass and I don't want to do that.

I'll be making updates to the decklist and the description over the next couple of days. Eight cards are being cut and replaced with the $100 upgrade. To easily distinguish the cards included in the $100 upgrade I'm marking them with an "A" in the decklist. The "A" usually means a card is altered, but in this case the card isn't altered it's an expensive upgrade. This way anyone wanting to use the less expensive $100 version can by just cutting the cards with an "A" next to them.

Here's a list of cards that I'm including in the $100 increase of the budget:

  1. Arcum Dagsson
  2. Master Transmuter
  3. Demonic Tutor
  4. Darksteel Forge
  5. Mycosynth Lattice
  6. Memnarch
  7. Tezzeret the Seeker
  8. Azorius Signet


These are the cards I'm cutting to fit in these upgrades:

  1. Panharmonicon
  2. Stubborn Denial
  3. Whirler Rogue
  4. Steel Hellkite
  5. Talisman of Dominance
  6. Perplex
  7. Executioner's Capsule
  8. Cranial Plating


These new card additions add a lot to this deck especially Mycosynth Lattice. Lattice adds a whole new dimension of strategy using Breya. All the new additions have synergy with Lattice including Memnarch who combos with it to steal my opponent's permanents. Darksteel Forge is particularly good with Lattice because all my permanents become indestructible. Master Transmuter is an artifact creature and a way to cheat all these high casting cost artifacts into play such as Lattice. Thopters as well as artifact lands such as Seat of the Synod are excellent with Transmuter. Tap Seat for for Transmuter, return Seat to my hand and put another artifact right into play. Repeat next turn by playing Seat again, tapping it for blue and returning it to my hand.


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Top Ranked
  • Achieved #2 position overall 8 years ago
Date added 8 years
Last updated 3 weeks
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

2 - 0 Mythic Rares

43 - 0 Rares

29 - 0 Uncommons

16 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.80
Tokens Clue, Elephant 3/3 G, Emblem Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh, Gnome Soldier X/X C, Manifest 2/2 C, Servo 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 U, Treasure, Zombie Army 0/0 B
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