Take out Trinket Mage because he's only good for searching for Sensei's Divining Top.

Deadeye Navigator is BY FAR the best blinker in commander, imaging blinking a Angel of Serenity 5 times so you can attack with no blockers.

Augury Owl is really good to blink. So are Cloudchaser Kestrel and Mnemonic Wall. Karmic Guide is extremely powerful if you've got the budget for it, same goes for Reveillark.

Opposition could be used to tap down your opponents creatures, attack, then untap yours by exiling them with Brago. And if you had a Battle Mastery or Fireshrieker you could double your commander's usefulness.

Now let's discuss some cards to remove. Mana Leak isn't too good in commander because your opponents will have a lot of mana. Disenchant isn't needed since you can flicker your other enchantment and artifact hate. Cranial Archive isn't all that great, unless your meta has a lot of graveyard abuse. Ghostly Flicker can only be used once, so I don't really like it. Voltaic Key only works with a few of your cards, so must of the time it'll be useless. The rest is up to you.

Thanks for the suggestions man!

Took out Trinket Mage, Mana Leak and Cranial Archive. Included Deadeye Navigator, Augury Owl and Fireshrieker. Sadly, I dont have the budget for Karmic Guide, Reveillark, or Opposition yet.

I actually agree with your suggestions for cutting, and would appreciate some suggestions on what to replace them with.

Also took out Disenchant for Cloudchaser Kestrel. I don't think Mnemonic Wall is very good here, since I only have 6 instants or sorceries on the deck.

Oops, my bad. speaking of which, Rite of Replication is powerful in all blue decks and Cyclonic Rift is capable of getting your opponents killed.

Those are good, but a little bit too expensive for me right now.

Drift of Phantasms could be used to search for all kinds of goodies in your deck (especially Reality Acid).

Some really cheap ramp is Everflowing Chalice and Worn Powerstone, which can replace Wayfarer's Bauble and Mind Stone.

Some cheap draw is Flight of Fancy and Well of Ideas.

Some cheap endgame cards would be Evangel of Heliod and Geist-Honored Monk.

Thanks man, you're really helping me a lot.

Made some replacements:

• Wayfarer's Bauble for Everflowing Chalice;

• Cloudchaser Kestrel for Drift of Phantasms;

• Whirler Rogue for Geist-Honored Monk.

Very nice deck. +1 from me! (: Check out my Brago deck?

Blinking Contest Playtest

Commander / EDH* SorinDankov

SCORE: 34 | 5 COMMENTS | 5786 VIEWS

Aqueous Form?

Wow, your Brago deck looks sweet man. I will definitively take a look and steal some of your ideas haha.

• Took out Mind Stone for Aqueous Form

Thanks! :D I really appreciate it! Glad I could help!

Is Crystal Shard that good? It seems like it could be, but if it doesn't live up to expectation then put Whirler Rogue back in because he makes evasive tokens. If you had him and geist-honored monk in play you would get 4 flying tokens a turn. Plus, whirler rogue can make your biggest creatures unblockable.

Hmm, I agree with you. Crystal Shard doesn't seem like it would be relevant when everyone got lots of mana, and Whirler Rogue lets me put evasive tokens into play, and get some extra use out of the all the artifacts in the deck. Also, making sure brago always hits the target is nice because this deck needs him blinking stuff for it to be good.

I think you're looking at Crystal Shard from the wrong perspective. It isn't meant to bounce your opponent's creatures but your own. Having another bouncing option is always handy imo.

Oh, I wasn't thinking about that. I already have brago to blink stuff, so I don't need a bounce effect to get another enter the battlefield trigger, but I guess it would be useful to save a creature from removal.

Brago does all the blinking you should need since tucking isn't a thing anymore. lol I don't run ANY other sources of blink in my deck aside from Venser.

Do keep in mind that he blinks any non-land permanent. Mana Vault is just dumb in this deck because of that. Tangle Wire while at first glance doesn't seem too relevant, always causes your opponents to tap more things than you, and since you are blink you rocks, they come back in untapped, making you still able to use rocks for mana. Counter spells are not too relevant in commander since there is a fair amount of removal. Spine of Ish Sah allows you to be able to exile something every time you can blink it, which is about every turn. Also I would exchange Planar Cleansing with Wrath of God or Day of Judgment. They are just better.

I don't have enough money for Wrath of God, Day of Judgment, Tangle Wire, or Mana Vault. Spine of Ish Sah is a card to consider, but I didn't include it because at 7 mana I opted to have something a little bit more powerful, that actually closes the game.

Don't underestimate Spine of Ish Sah, when I had my Brago deck together it was a great removal option.

I wish I had the list for my deck, it could easily handle 2 opponents at once, usually a 3rd as well. I ended up taking it apart, undefeated, as my friends grew tired of it.

A few cards I would recommend replacing after looking at your list are as follows, along with some suggested replacements.

Everflowing Chalice -> Mind Stone Everflowing is nice but can't be abused with Brago by bouncing. Mind stone is early ramp when you need it and a card when you don't. Mana rocks combo really well with Brago as you can essentially tap them twice in one turn, but since everflowing has kicker it will never be a valid Brago target.

Worn Powerstone -> Hedron Archive Same as above. Taps for two mana that turn and when bounced, and can be pitched for cards when you need them.

Some other mana rocks to look at are Ur-Golem's Eye and Sisay's Ring for the budget friendly. Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus for the unlimited budget.

Spellbook -> Cloud of Faeries Spellbook doesn't do much aside from take up a slot, and no max hand size isn't necessary most of the time. The faeries on the other hand are great early game Peregrine Drake and can accelerate your game a lot. They pay for themselves and can cycle in a pinch.

If you really want the no max hand size then Reliquary Tower is a great option, though not as budget friendly. Venser's Journal costs a bit more than spellbook but can net you some life every upkeep.

Aqueous Form -> Pentarch Ward Protection is not always as good as unblockable when playing against multicoloured decks, but drawing instead of scrying is nice, and the added bonus of protection from certain removal is another bonus.

Tsabo's Web -> Parallax Tide Keeping them from using their utility land is cool, but exiling it and up to 3 other target nuisance lands every turn is much more annoying. Use 4 fade counters, cripple someone's land base. Then blink it next turn and do it again.

Parallax Wave works the same magic on creatures. However, I never used it since it will let their ETB effects trigger.

Running out of time right now but quickly here are some key cards my deck utilized:

Phyrexian Ingester Great removal easily abused with Brago.

Man-o'-War or Æther Adept Cheap creature bounce. Really hard to stick generals with these around.

Riftwing Cloudskate Excellent Brago target, hits whatever permanent you need to get rid of.

Æthersnipe Nonland permanent bounce. Can be evoked if necessary.

Vedalken Dismisser Punishing to recover from this in a deck without draw power. Returning stuff to the top of the library is the best effect you can recur, which is why Nevermaker is an all-star in Brago.

Mistmeadow Witch Having some redundancy to get some bounce through hate is always good. Sometimes Brago just can't stick. She's also good at bouncing your opponents stuff to slow them down if needed.

Conjurer's Closet Bounce redundancy. Free extra bounce at the end of turn. Nevermaker twice in one turn? Yes please.

Clone Get whatever you want, every turn you can change it up if something better comes along. Phyrexian Metamorph is excellent as well, though less budget friendly. The ability to copy artifacts is very useful, and what I use him for most of the time.

Dissipate Counter and never see it again. Same with Faerie Trickery though it is meta dependent.

I'd recommend putting more mana rocks in, as well as some more counters and a Mnemonic Wall as an extra Archeomancer. Countering something every opponents turn can really cripple anything they're trying to do.

I see that your build uses mill, and also includes some manifest cards. The way I usually won with Brago was when my opponents scooped because I would return their field to the top of their library, but forgoing that don't forget that Brago is doing 2 commander damage a turn. Any sort of pump and you can close the 21 damage gap faster. I never tried it but Mirror Entity seems like it could fit well, since you get to untap your mana rocks after combat anyways.

I'm liking your decklist, keep experimenting with Brago, he's a lot of fun.

Your suggestions are interesting. Not exactly how I would run my deck, but if you have some time, I'd like to see what you have to say about mine as well. I disagree about dropping Tsabo's Web though. Great card with Brago. Keeps people from using their Kor Havens and Maze of Iths. Also lets you draw early since it's cheap.

I forgot that Tsabo's Web nets a card. In my meta, I don't see many Kor Havens or Maze of Iths however, so the Parallax Tide was excellent resource denial and spot removal for the occasional nuisance land.

Manifest was something I wanted to try with Brago but I ran too few creatures for it to work. I think Mirror Entity would mesh well with manifest, since it can turn your non-creature manifestations into some decent beaters, and push Brago's commander clock faster.

I never really liked mill myself, and in my meta it doesn't generally work that well due to the eldrazi titans or the decks that can abuse the grave.

Since you have quite a few enchantments in the deck and have a small token subtheme, Ajani's Chosen would work well.

Faith's Fetters is also a card I forgot to mention. Good removal and the 4 life adds up fast. Also, since on the bounce it'll dodge hexproof or shroud it can shut down some really annoying things. Arrest does basically the same thing.

Skybind is another enchantment I had used for a while, it basically can double the blink you get with Brago, and since you have quite a few enchantments it should be going off often enough. Also good to clear the way for Brago to swing in.

Thassa's Devourer fits with the mill theme and can probably mill a lot of cards with the amount of enchantments you run.

Sphere of Safety gives you time to set up and can make it almost impossible to attack you.

I'm interested to know how does your deck usually wins? Your deck curves out really low compared to the deck I had so it looks to be a more aggressive deck, but you have quite a few mill cards, so is aggro the backup plan? Drift of Phantasms looks like an excellent fit for the deck, it can find a lot of different things you need. You've got some good draw power and top deck manipulation, as well as some good token generation for an aggro strategy. The deck does look a little weak to wrath effects though, and it's a little counter light for the way I like my Brago. That being said you've got some pretty cool card synergies available.

Cloudform and Lightform give you free permanents with Brago. Blink the face down and it comes back face up.

MobiusOne Thanks for the suggestions man!

Made some replacements:Everflowing Chalice -> Mind Stone

Prismatic Lens -> Hedron Archive

Spellbook -> Pentarch Ward

Negate -> Dissipate

The mill sub-theme in the deck is small, I just have Jace's Mindseeker and Altar of the Brood. The first is a good card in and of itself, and both of them are relevant as a alternate win con if I happen to assemble my infinite blink combo.

Lo e the deck tech! I think you should include mistmeadow witch as she is what you're after as well

No need for more blink in a Brago deck, imho.