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[Primer] Blink and You'll Miss It - Brago EDH

Commander / EDH Aggro Blink Combo Competitive Control WU (Azorius)

Hydrax

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Creature (32)

Land (36)

Instant (10)

Sorcery (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: Brago, King Eternal

Artifact (12)

Enchantment (6)

This deck has been moved to Moxfield. It will no longer be updated here. Please follow the link to see the most up-to-date version of this deck.

Introduction

There is something immensely satisfying about receiving immediate benefits as soon as your permanent hits the board. You know full well that even if this thing gets removed right after, you have at least gotten the value out of its ETB (enters the battlefield) effect.

The downside is that these types of cards don't do a whole lot after hitting the field. That is, unless we blink them. "Blinking" (aka "flickering") in Magic is the nickname for exiling a permanent and returning it to the battlefield (either immediately or at some point in the future). The point of doing this is to trigger a permanent's ETB effect all over again.

Brago, King Eternal does just that, and he's not alone. There is a whole suite of cards in this deck that allow us to blink our permanents, letting us repeatedly benefit from their ETB effects instead of just the first time we play them. With this deck, you will get to have your cake and eat it too.

This Primer features the following:

  • Why Brago? - describes the type of player who would enjoy this deck

  • The Gameplan - for those that just want the general, bare-minimum game plan and win-conditions

  • Packages - cards grouped together so you can have a better idea of how many sources we have of ramp, card draw, removal, etc.

  • Individual Card Choices - every single card discussed individually to justify its inclusion in the deck and specific use-cases

  • Baseline Resonator Combo - the most important fundamental combo you need to understand in order to pilot this deck to its maximum potential

  • Real Combos - combos you will actually use in live games, explained step-by-step so you can study and pull them off without hesitation

  • No-Combo Kit - certain cards may rub some play groups the wrong way, this section points them out so you can remove them and substitute different cards to satisfy a lower-power playgroup

  • Budget Options - for those who like the idea behind the deck but don't want to buy the more expensive cards in the list (and there is a link to a budget version of this deck as well)

  • Change Log - any edits made to the deck since its conception and reasons why those changes were made

Why Brago?

You will enjoy this deck if

  • You want to play a control deck designed to play it chill until it finds its combo pieces to win

  • You love the immediate satisfaction of ETB effects

  • You're looking for something that can be adjusted to different levels of play from casual to competitive

You will not like this deck if

  • You want to play big creatures

  • You don't like control playstyles

  • You're a BMW driver

The Gameplan

I found the best starts with this deck to be casting Brago, King Eternal first and foremost, then on the following turn casting a permanent for its ETB effect. Then, because Brago is no longer summoning sick, we can attack with him and blink that same permanent for more value right away. This sounds like a no-brainer but you have to keep in mind that this doesn't always translate to "get Brago on board ASAP". If you have no permanents in hand or on the field with ETB effects, there's not much point in casting Brago. He's not providing any value if there is nothing to blink.

This also leads into the general mulligan guidelines for this deck.

Typically you want to see in your opening hand:

  • at least two lands

  • a total of three mana sources (so this can mean three lands or two lands plus a 1-CMC or 2-CMC mana rock)

  • access to both and from your mana sources

  • and at least one permanent with an ETB effect

If your opening hand meets these requirements, it's keepable. Anything less is a risky start. With the 37 lands this deck is running, you'll likely find a 4th mana source by the time you want to cast Brago.

After the opening turns, grind value with multiple ETB effects triggering repeatedly (prioritize card draw over everything else where possible). Look to assemble one of the many combos available in this deck, the majority of which are enabled by having Brago on the board alongside Strionic Resonator and mana available from mana rocks. Alternatively, there is an infinite turns loop with Temporal Manipulation and a spell retriever (i.e. Archaeomancer). Carefully review the Combos section of this Primer to understand all the various cards you can put together to create a combo.

If you can't find the combo pieces or a combo attempt is disrupted, continue to grind value with ETB effects but pivot to stax and "return to hand" effects to take control of the board. Venser, Shaper Savant, Reflector Mage, etc. combined with a repeatable blink effect can help you keep the board clear while you dig for alternate combo pieces or just grind board presence with things like Aether Channeler.

Packages

Individual Cards Explained

A lot of the cards in this deck are pretty self-explanatory. Reading the card explains the card. However, some do have some niche applications and synergies that aren't immediately apparent. Take a glance through this section if any card in the list looks peculiar to you, otherwise feel free to collapse this panel and skip it if you feel confident that you understand the applications of each card.

I also prefer to discuss my cards in order of ascending CMC to better visualize my curve. If you're viewing this deck, I encourage you to click the "Sort" dropdown and select "Mana Value".

When Brago, King Eternal deals combat damage to a player, we get to choose any number of permanents we control and blink them.

Couple of things to remember:

  • Brago can blink himself as well as any number of our creatures, artifacts and enchantments (and Planeswalkers although we're not running any).

  • Whatever gets blinked comes back into play untapped, so if we have any mana rocks it will be best to tap them all for mana in Main Phase 1 because they will come back untapped after blinking meaning we can tap them for mana again in the post-combat main phase.

  • Our creatures will have psuedo-vigilance because we can swing with them and have Brago blink them back into play untapped.

Brago has Flying, meaning his built-in evasion will get him past most enemy creatures allowing him to safely trigger his effect. But it also means Commander damage is a real threat. Don't forget to count how much damage Brago has done on his own, because 21 total will take a player out of the game.

While Brago helps accelerate our value engine and it's a good idea to protect him and not send him flying at something that could potentially block and kill him, this deck can hold its own without its commander so don't worry too much if he is removed. Just keep grinding value and find other blinkers to take back control of the game.

Charming Prince is great in this deck because he has three options to choose from when he ETB's or flickers. We can Scry 2 to try and dig for combo pieces, we can gain 3 life if we're running low, or we can choose to flicker another creature if there is some value to be gained from doing so (which there almost certainly will be in this deck).

Cloud of Faeries at its worst is just a body on board that pays for itself because it untaps 2 lands when it enters the battlefield. However, in this deck, because we can blink it, we can untap 2 lands much more often. If combined with Brago and Strionic Resonator, we can use Cloud of Faeries to create infinite mana from our lands during any of our Resonator loops.

Spirited Companion is the first of our efficient card draw engine pieces. Every time we blink one of these with Brago, we will be drawing a card. With Strionic Resonator and a couple of mana rocks, we can draw our entire deck in one turn. See the Combos section for more details.

Wall of Omens plain and simple draws us a card when it ETB's and also provides a decent 0/4 body to block with.

Dawnbringer Cleric can remove any problematic enchantment when he ETB's. Useful for getting rid of stax pieces like Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe or something really threatening like Aura Shards. The nice thing is that he has other beneficial modes that we can use if there are no enchantments to remove. Gaining 2 life if we have nothing else to do is always a plus and removing cards from graveyards seriously messes with any graveyard based strategies. Grave hate is annoying enough already but in this deck we can just keep blinking Dawnbringer Cleric whenever we want and stop A LOT of really good commanders from doing their thing (Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Sefris of the Hidden Ways, Chainer, Nightmare Adept, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, The Scarab God, I could go on).

Watcher for Tomorrow lets us look at the top 4 cards of our deck and choose one to exile when it ETB's. Once it leaves the field, we get to put that exiled card into our hand. This is fantastic with blink effects because we're essentially "drawing" a card each time it leaves and then looting 4 deep again when it re-enters the battlefield. Great value in this deck.

Priest of Ancient Lore plain and simple draws us a card and gives us 1 life when it ETB's.

Inspiring Overseer is just another copy of Priest, except it also has Flying for some cheeky combat damage.

Sea Gate Oracle gives us the option of picking one of the top 2 cards of our library and putting it into our hand each time it ETB's. A good way to draw a card but filter that draw so we're getting something we actually want.

Aether Channeler is such a fantastic card for any blink deck. He gives us the option to draw a card upon ETB, or bounce an opponent's non-land permanent. Removal or card draw are both fantastic options, if we don't need one we can just do the other. On top of all of that, we have the option to create a 1/1 Bird token. This guy gives us several options for when we go infinite with Brago and Strionic Resonator.

Circuit Mender is great value in a blink-focused deck because it has effects for both entering and leaving the battlefield. We gain 2 life whenever it ETBs and draw a card whenever it leaves. Simple effect but high-value in a Brago deck.

Welcoming Vampire is just a free card draw engine because once per turn whenever we have a creature with 2 or less power ETB under our control we get to draw a card. In a deck full of blinkers and lots of low-power creatures, this is a nice static effect that requires no mana and will simply draw us cards throughout the course of the game.

Reflector Mage can also bounce a creature but has the additional effect of barring opponents from casting anything with the same name as the bounced creature on their next turn. This restriction lingers even if Reflector Mage leaves the field, so we can blink it to bounce something else and prevent that from being cast as well, further restricting our opponents' options.

Skyclave Apparition can exile any permanent with CMC 4 or less when it ETB's. In exchange, when it leaves the field, the owner of that permanent creates a token with power/toughness equal to that card's CMC. A vanilla token is a small price to pay to get rid of something valuable on our opponents' field such as Phyrexian Altar, for example. Skyclave Apparition cannot blink tokens but we have several other cards (such as Aether Channeler) that can bounce or exile those tokens, effectively making them dissappear completely.

Loran of the Third Path is basically an upgraded Reclamation Sage, allowing us to destroy an artifact or enchantment whenever she ETBs. The fun part is her card draw ability, which allows us to draw a card but we also have to pick an opponent who gets to draw as well. We can leverage this as a political tool, making a deal with an opponent to help us out if we pick them to draw with us.

Recruiter of the Guard is mainly in here to find Cloud of Faeries since it alone can combo with Brago and Strionic Resonator. However, it can also find Archaeomancer or its backup Salvager of Secrets. It can also search our backup backup Venser, Shaper Savant. However, there are plenty of other valid tutor targets if the situation calls for it.

Trinket Mage lets us search for Sol Ring which makes a lot of our Brago combos with Strionic Resonator a lot easier to pull off. Alternatively, we can find Arcum's Astrolabe so that we have a repeatable card draw engine.

Tribute Mage lets us search for any of our color-producing mana rocks which enable our infinite mana combos with Brago and Strionic Resonator. Or we can search for Thought Vessel if we have a card draw engine going and don't want to discard to hand size. Alternatively, it lets us fetch Lightning Greaves in case Brago needs some extra protection.

Sailor of Means helps us ramp by creating treasures when it ETB's, however we can make this go infinite with Strionic Resonator, Brago and mana from mana rocks to create infinite treasures. Or if we have just available from a mana rock, we can still get infinite ETB's.

Glasspool Mimic   is mainly a utility creature in this deck because it can come in as a copy of any of our other creatures. This is particularly good in a blink deck because we can change it up and copy another creature if the situation calls for it. Aside from all of that, we have the option of playing this card as a land Glasspool Shore   if we just need the land drop instead. It's a flexible and versatile card in this deck.

Soulherder allows us one free flicker at the end of turn which is part of our gameplan anyway. Furthermore, it grows stronger for EACH creature that gets flickered so this thing can grow very large very quickly in this deck.

Thassa, Deep-Dwelling is mainly in here because she provides a free creature flicker at the end of turn. However if we manage to obtain 5 devotion to blue then she also becomes a formidable 6/5 creature with Indestructible.

Venser, Shaper Savant can bounce any permanent when he ETB's, making him a very versatile source of removal. Combo'd with Brago and Strionic Resonator, he can literally bounce everything our opponents control back to their hands.

Glen Elendra Archmage gives us the option to pay and sacrifice it to counter any non-creature spell. The nice thing is that it as Persist, meaning it can come back with a -1/-1 counter to let us do it again. Normally, this would be a 2-time use (because Persist wouldn't bring it back if it has a -1/-1 counter). But in this deck, we can blink it to make it re-enter the battlefield which gets rid of the -1/-1 counter. This means we can keep countering non-creature spells if we keep blinking the Archmage.

Preston, the Vanisher is insane in this deck. Preston creates a token copy of any creature that ETB's on our field (as long as it wasn't cast). We're playing a deck full of blink effects, so this ability is ridiculously easy to trigger. We blink any of our creatures and Preston will create an illusion copy of it when it re-enters, so we essentially double up on the ETB value, almost like Panharmonicon. The neat thing about Preson, however, is that he can pay just and exile five of those illusions to exile any other nonland permanent so he acts as removal as well.

Archaeomancer is mainly in here for combo purposes but it can also retrieve a lot of useful Instants and Sorceries if we need one. A Fierce Guardianship so we can protect Brago for free once again. Or perhaps a Swords to Plowshares if there is a problematic enemy creature on the board. Or maybe Supreme Verdict if we need to nuke the board.

Salvager of Secrets is a back-up Archaeomancer for combo and utility purposes.

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is a Panharmonicon on a stick. She doubles all of our ETB triggers. I shouldn't have to explain why this is good in a deck full of blink and ETB effects. Furthermore, she completely nullifies opponents' ETB effects, making her a formidable stax piece.

Peregrine Drake has great flicker value by being able to untap lands when it ETB's, helping us ramp and combo off.

Deadeye Navigator can soulbond itself to another creature when it ETB's. It then gives itself and that creature the ability to blink for . There are combos with this and Peregrine Drake that we can use to generate infinite mana but even paired to any other creature in this deck it's just good value.

Sun Titan is insanely good value in this deck because it can repeatedly reanimate 3-or-less-CMC permanents from our graveyard whenever it ETBs or attacks. Not only is this a repeatable way to retrieve our combo pieces but crucially it can grab Strionic Resonator (our most important combo piece) and the vast majority of the other permanents in our deck.

Combat Thresher has a deceptive CMC in this deck, because we can actually cast it for just for reduced stats but it retains its abilities. So for just 3 mana we get a 2/1 with double strike that draws us a card upon ETB, essentially making it a better Priest of Ancient Lore. However, in this deck, we can blink it which means it will come back as a 3/3 next time it ETBs, essentially bypassing the downside of the Prototype casting cost. At that point, it's a 3/3 with Double strike so it's formidable in combat and can deal 6 damage to an opponent when it swings unblocked.

Codex Shredder can combo with Brago, King Eternal, Strionic Resonator and a mana rock or two to mill out each of our opponents. See the Combos section for more details on how to pull this off. Outside of our combo, it has the ability to retrieve any card in our graveyard with its activated ability, this is extremely useful for getting Strionic Resonator back if it was countered or removed earlier in the game. Finally, Codex Shredder can be searched via Trinket Mage.

Arcum's Astrolabe lets us draw a card whenever it ETB's (or whenever it's blinked). It can also filter mana if we need specific colors but it's mainly in here because it's cheap, it's searchable via Trinket Mage and it can be blinked for card draw.

Sol Ring is just a plain and simple, efficient mana rock. An EDH staple.

Mana Vault rockets us ahead on mana and the downside of not being able to untap is completely mitigated by the fact that we can just blink it and bring it back into play untapped with Brago's effect.

Thought Vessel taps for colorless and also provides the static effect of no maximum hand size. This is good because we have a lot of repeatable card draw effects and sometimes we end up having to discard down to hand size.

Arcane Signet, Azorius Signet and Talisman of Progress are basic mana rocks that tap for either of our colors.

Strionic Resonator lets us pay 2 mana to copy any triggered ability, which means any of our ETB abilities or Brago, King Eternal's combat damage ability. This is what makes it an essential combo piece. However, even when not combo'ing, just paying 2 mana we have lying around to copy a strong ETB effect is just straight value.

Lightning Greaves is a good way to protect Brago by granting him Shroud and allowing him to swing immediately with Haste. Keep in mind that we won't be able to blink him while he's equipped with the Greaves due to Shroud but we can blink the Greaves to get them off if we need to.

Panharmonicon is insane in this deck because it doubles ETB triggers whenever a creature (or artifact) enters the battlefield. We'll be making two birds with Aether Channeler, we'll be drawing two cards off of Spirited Companion, we'll be untapping four lands off of Cloud of Faeries, the value is insane.

The Mightstone and Weakstone   is an insanely good artifact in this deck. When it ETBs, we have the option of drawing two cards or giving any creature -5/-5. In a deck full of blink effects, primarily Brago himself, we can repeatedly use this to keep our hand full by drawing cards OR if necessary, we can use it kill enemy creatures. Just one ETB is enough to kill a creature with 5 or less toughness, and if we can repeatedly blink it with Brago and Strionic Resonator, we can literally wipe our opponents' boards with this card. And the fact that it reduces toughness instead of outright destroying the creature means it gets around effects like Indestructible. And on top of all that, it can tap for . Granted this mana can only be spent on Artifact spells but we're playing a decent number of them and have Tribute Mage and Trinket Mage which let us search for them so even the mana ability on this card isn't completely dead, but the real value here is the ETB card draw or removal.

Confounding Conundrum draws us a card when it ETB's, meaning its a great blink target for Brago's ability. It also puts the brakes on a lot of the ramp decks in EDH that want to play multiple lands in a turn. We're in Azorius colors, we need something to level the playing field against those pesky green decks.

Omen of the Sea is one of the best draw effects we can blink because it lets us Scry 2 before we draw. In a deck that is designed to fish for combo pieces, this is exactly the kind of permanent we want to be flickering constantly.

Detention Sphere is a great way to get rid of a problematic permanent but we have several more advanced applications for this. For one, we can target a token to exile with it and it will also exile any other tokens with the same name, and since tokens are permanently removed when they leave the field, they won't be coming back even if something happens to Detention Sphere. Furthermore, we can combo this card with Brago's blink ability and Strionic Resonator to permanently delete something from the game. This is a complex stack interaction and is explained in detail in the Combos section of this primer. If we add Sol Ring or any mana rocks that produce a total of , we can permanently get rid of ALL of our opponents' permanents.

Reality Acid is an excellent removal engine in this deck. The way it works is that we enchant any permanent when it enters the battlefield. Normally, we'd have to wait until the time counters slowly drop off, after which the aura is sacrificed. When Reality Acid leaves the field, the thing it had enchanted must be sacrificed. However, we can skip waiting around with Brago, King Eternal's ability to flicker permanents. We blink Reality Acid, the permanent it had enchanted is now gone, and Reality Acid re-enters so we can target something new with it. This is insane value in a Brago deck and keep in mind that it can enchant Lands as well. Finally, and this is an important point to keep in mind, when we put an Aura into play without casting it (i.e. blinking it with Brago) it can enchant any valid target, even if that target has Hexproof. The ruling is that Hexproof, protection, etc. only apply when a spell is on the stack and blinking Reality Acid into play does not use the stack.

Unquestioned Authority is mainly in here to ensure that Brago can swing freely past blockers (even flyers) to get his effect off safely. Protection from creatures also means he can't be targeted by their effects so things like Ravenous Chupacabra can't get rid of him. On top of all of that, it draws us a card when it ETBs.

  • IMPORTANT: it's worth mentioning that if you have Brago enchanted with Unquestioned Authority, you will not be able to blink him with his own effect. "Protection from creatures" means he cannot be targeted by creatures' abilities, which include his own. You can still blink Unquestioned Authority and your other permanents for value though and just re-attach it to Brago when it re-enters.

Teleportation Circle synergizes with our gameplan of constantly blinking our creatures/artifacts by allowing us one free flicker at the end of our turn, just like Soulherder and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling.

Ephemerate is primarily used to blink one of our creatures for ETB value but it can also be used somewhat defensively in response to a removal spell such as Doom Blade targeting one of our creatures. We can cast Ephemerate in response to exile the creature, which fizzles the Doom Blade because its target is no longer valid. So our creature survives and re-enters the battlefield triggering its ETB effect all over again while fizzling any targeted removal pointed at it. After all of that, it also has Rebound which lets us cast it again for free on the next upkeep (doesn't matter whose upkeep it is).

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are both reliable removal spells that exile creatures. Our opponents get something back in return but the removal is more valuable to us.

Pongify and Rapid Hybridization can both destroy a target creature and give that creature's owner a 3/3 token in return. Odds are that whatever we kill is more valuable to them than a vanilla 3/3 so this isn't a bad trade. The fun thing about this deck is that we have a bunch of bounce effects like Reflector Mage and Venser, Shaper Savant which we can use to bounce these tokens, which will simply disappear. Tokens do not re-enter the battlefield if they are blinked (or removed for any reason, for that matter).

Swan Song is a cheap and efficient counterspell that can help protect our combo(s) when we try to go for it and an opponent tries to stop it. It's also just nice to have in a deck reliant on its commander.

Cyclonic Rift can bounce any permanent we want or all enemy permanents if we overload it. There's a psuedo-combo with this, Archaeomancer and any repeatable blink effect. If we overload this for 7 mana, we wipe the board of any enemy resistance. We then attack and do whatever else we want and use our blink effect (Brago, King Eternal, Soulherder, etc.) to flicker the Archaeomancer and retrieve the Cyclonic Rift, so we can just do the same thing again when the turn order comes back to us. We can substitute Salvager of Secrets for Archaeomancer in the above combo, just a heads up.

Muddle the Mixture can be used as a counterspell against Instants and Sorceries but it also has the option to Transmute for 3 mana, meaning we can search for any card in our deck that has CMC 2. Lots of good options. Is there somebody ramping like crazy? Go get Confounding Conundrum. Need removal? Cyclonic Rift. Need card draw? Go get Omen of the Sea. Need a mana rock? Go get Arcane Signet. Need to combo off? Go get Strionic Resonator.

Fierce Guardianship is in here because this deck likes to have its commander around, and if Brago is on the field then Fierce Guardianship is completely free to cast. Great for protecting Brago but also for protecting our combos when we go for them.

Generous Gift is just a reliable answer to any permanent. Again, the affected player gets a 3/3 token just like Pongify but with so many of our bounce effects this token will hardly be a problem.

Fabricate is in here because we have several important Artifacts that this deck can abuse, namely Strionic Resonator. Alternatively we can use this to find some ramp like Sol Ring or protection for Brago like Lightning Greaves.

Supreme Verdict is a reliable board wipe in case we're getting overwhelmed or an opponent has vomitted a ton of creatures onto the field.

Temporal Manipulation is a combo piece for our main win condition. The nice thing is that the combo can work even if this card is in the graveyard so if we randomly draw it, we shouldn't hesitate to cast it because whether it resolves or not doesn't matter. The details of this combo can be found in the Combos section of this primer.

Command Tower, Adarkar Wastes, Deserted Beach, Glacial Fortress, Hallowed Fountain, Hengegate Pathway  , Nimbus Maze, Port Town, Prairie Stream, Sea of Clouds and Seachrome Coast can all come into play untapped and produce both of our colors.

Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage and Flooded Strand fix our mana while thinning our deck, thus slightly increasing our odds of drawing important combo pieces.

Reliquary Tower removes the cap on our max hand size so we can keep all the resources we draw.

Academy Ruins is mainly in here in case we need to retrieve Strionic Resonator if it gets countered or removed. It's one of the most important cards in the deck so we need to be able to get it back somehow.

An even split of 10 Snow-Covered Island and 10 Snow-Covered Plains round out the lands in the deck. We're playing snow-covered basic lands so we can reliably cast Arcum's Astrolabe.

Baseline Resonator Combo

This is the most important combo to understand if you're going to play this deck:

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Attack with Brago and deal combat damage, Brago triggers.

  2. With that Brago trigger on the stack, pay for Strionic Resonator's effect copying Brago's blink ability.

  3. With the copied Brago trigger, target Strionic Resonator, your mana rocks and any other valid permanents you want and blink them.

  4. Your permanents re-enter untapped and you trigger any of their ETB effects.

  5. The original Brago trigger is still on the stack, do NOT let it resolve. Instead, with it still on the stack, repeat steps 2-4 as many times as you want.

Notes:

  • This loop requires in order to repeatedly pay for Strionic Resonator. As long as you can generate that mana from mana rocks, you can pay for the Resonator and blink those same mana rocks so they re-enter untapped, allowing you to tap them to pay for the Resonator again, thus repeating the loop.

  • During each iteration of the loop, you can blink any other permanents you control.

  • Note that if one of the permanents you're blinking is Sailor of Means, then you can get away with just mana from rocks, because the Treasure makes up for the missing .

  • Or if one of the permanents you're blinking is Cloud of Faeries, you don't need any mana rocks because it can untap any two lands whenever it ETBs, and you can re-tap those lands to get the mana needed to pay for Strionic Resonator and keep looping.

  • The baseline combo above is the foundation for the following combos, just add any of the following payoff permanents into the mix and reap their respective benefits each time you blink them during the aforementioned Resonator loop.

Payoffs:

pottermeme

Real Combos

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Cast Archaeomancer, retrieve the extra turn spell from your graveyard and put it into your hand. If you already have the extra turn spell in hand, the Archaeomancer trigger doesn't really matter, just retrieve whatever you want. The point is to have it on the battlefield.

  2. Cast the extra turn spell targeting yourself. Assuming nobody counters it, the spell resolves and goes to the graveyard and you will take an another turn after your end step.

  3. Using your repeatable blink effect, blink Archaeomancer. Using its ETB effect, retrieve the extra turn spell.

  4. Your next turn begins, and you're back to where you started but since it's a new turn you have drawn another card and can play a land. Keep taking extra turns by repeating the above steps and eventually you'll be able to play enough creatures and spells and swing at opponents until they're all dead, or assemble one of the many other combos and win from there.

Notes:

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Attack with Brago and deal combat damage, Brago triggers

  2. With that Brago trigger on the stack, pay for Strionic Resonator's effect copying Brago's blink ability

  3. Target your mana rocks, Reality Acid and Strionic Resonator with this copied ability and let it resolve

  4. The mana rocks will come back into play untapped and so will Strionic Resonator. Reality Acid leaving the field will cause the permanent it was enchanting to be sacrificed, enchant another one of your opponents' permanents when it re-enters.

  5. The original Brago trigger is still on the stack, do NOT let it resolve. Instead, with it still on the stack, repeat steps 2-4 as many times as you want.

Notes:

  • With an infinite number of Reality Acid triggers, we can disintegrate everything our opponents control, including their lands. They'll have empty fields while we continue to press our advantage.

  • Venser, Shaper Savant can replace Reality Acid for the purposes of this combo, except he'll be returning our opponents' permanents to their hand instead of destroying them.

  • Aether Channeler can also replace Reality Acid for this combo but keep in mind he cannot bounce opponents' lands. Still, if the opportunity arises you can essentially Cyclonic Rift everyone else's boards.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Attack with Brago and deal combat damage, Brago triggers

  2. With that Brago trigger on the stack, pay for Strionic Resonator's effect copying Brago's blink ability

  3. Target your mana rocks, Codex Shredder and Strionic Resonator with this copied ability and let it resolve

  4. The mana rocks will come back into play untapped and so will Strionic Resonator and Codex Shredder. At this step, you can tap Codex Shredder to force an opponent to mill a card.

  5. The original Brago trigger is still on the stack, do NOT let it resolve. Instead, with it still on the stack, repeat steps 2-4 as many times as you want.

Notes:

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Attack with Brago and deal damage to trigger his ability

  2. The original Brago trigger is on the stack, but before it resolves, pay for Strionic Resonator to copy Brago's ability

  3. Target all of your mana rocks, Strionic Resonator and Spirited Companion

  4. They all return to the field untapped. Draw a card off of Spirited Companion

  5. The original Brago trigger is still on the stack, but do not let it resolve, instead repeat steps 2-4.

  6. This lets you draw through your deck while producing mana to cast your spells with. When you find an extra turn spell or when you dig enough into your deck that you are satisfied, just stop blinking the Spirited Companion. Leave 3-5 cards in your deck so you don't deck out in case something goes wrong. Be sure to play Thought Vessel or Reliquary Tower in your post combat main phase so you aren't forced to dump all the cards you drew.

  7. You can keep blinking your rocks for infinite mana though. However keep in mind this mana will be emptied once the combat phase ends.

  8. If mana is available from your rocks or any leftover lands, be sure to cast an extra turn spell in your post-combat main phase so that you can actually do something with all of the cards you've drawn. If one of the permanents you were blinking during this combo happens to be Sailor of Means, you should have infinite Treasures and can use them to cast all the spells you've drawn.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Soulbond Deadeye Navigator with Peregrine Drake

  2. You can now pay mana to blink Peregrine Drake. When it ETB's, you may untap 5 lands and Soulbond it to Deadeye Navigator again.

  3. Tap those 5 lands for mana. Spend 2 of that mana to blink the Soulbonded Peregrine Drake again.

  4. Untap those 5 lands and Soulbond the drake again. You are netting 3 mana each time you do this (getting 5 from tapping lands, paying 2 to blink the Drake and untapping them). Rinse and repeat for infinite mana.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Cast Peregrine Drake, Panharmonicon causes its ETB effect to trigger twice.

  2. Two Peregrine Drake triggers go on the stack.

  3. Let the first trigger resolve and untap any 5 lands (make sure at least 2 of them can produce blue mana).

  4. While the second drake trigger is still on the stack, tap all 5 of those lands again and spend 4 of that mana to cast Venser, Shaper Savant (we can do this because he has Flash). 1 mana is leftover in our pool that we will not use.

  5. When Venser enters, Panharmonicon causes him to trigger twice.

  6. Return both Peregrine Drake and Venser, Shaper Savant himself back to your hand.

  7. Now, finally, the last Peregrine Drake trigger resolves. Untap those 5 lands again.

  8. We're now back to where we started except we have 1 mana floating in our pool. Demonstrate and repeat this loop for infinite mana.

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Attack with Brago and deal combat damage, Brago triggers

  2. With that Brago trigger on the stack, pay for Strionic Resonator's effect copying Brago's blink ability

  3. Target your mana rocks, Sailor of Means and Strionic Resonator with this copied ability and let it resolve

  4. The mana rocks will come back into play untapped and so will Strionic Resonator. Sailor of Means returns and creates a Treasure token.

  5. The original Brago trigger is still on the stack, do NOT let it resolve. Instead, with it still on the stack, repeat steps 2-4 as many times as you want.

Notes:

  • This is the only Resonator loop that creatures infinite mana we can actually use in the post-combat main phase.

  • Consider combining this with a card draw ETB effect to draw your whole deck (leaving a couple of cards so you don't deck out) and cast all of your spells, including an extra turn spell. Then just win on your extra turn.

This isn't exactly a combo but I figured it's worth explaining this interaction because it can be very tricky.

Let's say you have Detention Sphere on the field along with Strionic Resonator and Brago, King Eternal.

  1. Swing with Brago and deal damage, Brago triggers.

  2. Pay and activate Strionic Resonator to copy that trigger. Using this copy, target everything you want to blink including Detention Sphere, Strionic Resonator and any mana rocks you have.

  3. Everything blinks and Detention Sphere re-enters and triggers again.

  4. In response, pay another to activate Strionic Resonator again, making yet another copy of the original Brago trigger (from Step 1) which still hasn't resolved.

  5. Using this new copy, target Detention Sphere AGAIN. It blinks and re-enters, triggering its effect again.

Visual Stack - At this point, here's what the stack looks like (the one at the top will resolve first):

  • Detention Sphere ETB

  • Detention Sphere LTB (paired with the ETB below)

  • Detention Sphere ETB (paired with the LTB above), THIS IS THE ONE THAT WILL PERMANENTLY DELETE A PERMANENT

  • Original Brago Trigger

  • Now allow the stack to resolve as shown above. The ETB trigger at the top will exile something you don't care about, just pick any opponent's permanent or one of your own (you can also choose not to exile anything as Detention Sphere's ETB effect is optional). The next step below that is the LTB but it has nothing to return, because we manipulated the stack in a way that the ETB it is referencing will do its thing AFTER the LTB trigger. Then the ETB trigger resolves, this time exile something you want gone permanently.

  • Allow the original Brago trigger to resolve and empty the stack.

So why/how does this work?

  • Trying to put this as simply as possible: We cause Detention Sphere to ETB, but BEFORE it even has a chance to exile something, we make it leave the battlefield. These two effects are paired with each other but are resolving in the "wrong" order. So the LTB says you have to return whatever you exiled, but you never had the chance to exile anything in the first place, so nothing returns. THEN the ETB effect gets a chance to resolve, which you use to exile a permanent. However, this ETB/LTB pair has now done its thing, albiet in the "wrong" order. Therefore, the permanent is gone forever.

Notes:

  • If you add Sol Ring or any mana rocks that combine to produce at least you can loop the above combo infinitely to delete all enemy permanents permanently.

  • You can pull this same trick with things like Oblivion Ring and Fiend Hunter. Note that the ETB/LTB effects must be separate (two separate paragraphs) for this to work, so it wouldn't work for Banisher Priest and Banishing Light, for example.

charlie

Trying to explain how this shit works

No-Combo Kit

Some playgroups may not be ok with you taking infinite turns or looping effects. If that's the case, you can make the following swaps:

Remove Temporal Manipulation and Salvager of Secrets because the first two are combo pieces and Salvager is just a redundacy combo piece. Archaeomancer can stay because it's just a good card being able to retrieve useful spells like Swords to Plowshares. But if you don't see a need for him with the extra turn spells removed, Whirler Rogue is a good replacement.

But now let's address the real culprit and arguably the commander's lieutenant: Strionic Resonator. As you read in the Combos section, this little tuning fork enables A LOT of our loops, loops that not all playgroups will appreciate. It is, however, just a really good card in any Brago deck, so you can keep it in and just choose not to use it for combos. Or you can just take it out, that's up to you.

Finally, Codex Shredder is in here just to mill people out with Strionic Resonator and isn't super impactful outside of combos so that can come out.

And then there's Academy Ruins whose main purpose is to retrieve Strionic Resonator. You can leave it in if you like because artifact recursion is nice to have but feel free to replace it with a basic land if you'd like to save some money and don't need it.

With those gone, you can fill the empty slots with any of the cards from the next Budget Options section.

Budget Options

First off, I've put together a $75 Budget Brago Deck here. It's not as powerful as this one but it still has several of the same combo win-cons and is still quite a potent control/combo deck.

In the rest of this section I'll point out all of the cards that cost more than $5 USD (please change your "Price Settings" on Moxfield to TCGPlayer because that's what I use when discussing the price of cards). I will then suggest alternative cards that are of a similar CMC, work well in this deck and are much cheaper to purchase.

Keep in mind that a lot of these will power the deck down but won't change the overall theme and gameplan.

Lands

Artifacts

Instants

Sorceries

Creatures

Change Log

1/20/22

1/13/22

  • I play this deck at high power and decided I need a bit more protection for Brago and my combos, which is why I've added Fierce Guardianship and Swan Song.

  • To make room, Cloudshift was removed. It's a one-time blink and Brago is providing that value already. Mystical Tutor was also removed because it's primary purpose was seaching an extra turn spell which isn't even our main combo.

1/2/23

  • Happy new year folks! Made a quick change to this deck: a single Snow-Covered Island was replaced with Glasspool Mimic  . The Mimic can copy any of our other creatures so we can benefit from the ETB effects, and can later be blinked to do the same thing or copy a different creature if we want. Aside from that, we can always play it as a land if needed, so there was virtually no opportunity cost to removing that Island.

12/18/22

12/12/22

11/13/22

11/3/22

  • Decided to remove Conjurer's Closet. Every time I draw it, it just sits in hand, because I have at least two or three other plays I want to make with 5 mana before I even consider casting this card. This deck is so efficient that it just becomes a dead card and I end up spending my mana on more impactful spells/abilities, so I have replaced it with Welcoming Vampire for now.

  • Also going to add two new cards that were spoiled in Brothers' War: Combat Thresher and Loran of the Third Path. Thresher is just another card draw engine that can be cast for 3 and then blinked to come back as a 3/3 with Double Strike, essentially making it a better Priest of Ancient Lore. And Loran of the Third Path is just solid artifact/enchantment removal with the option of card draw and some political manipulation. These cards won't be available until Brothers' War but I went ahead and updated the deck already.

  • So, to make room I took out Blade Splicer and Angel of Finality because I found that Dawnbringer Cleric functions just fine as graveyard hate so I found myself not playing Angel of Finality very much.

  • I'm also looking to add The Mightstone and Weakstone   but haven't decided what I'm going remove for it just yet.

10/29/22

  • Overwhelmed Apprentice was repalced by Codex Shredder because it enables the same mill combo so we didn't lose anything. But it also allows us to retrieve any card we need, namely Strionic Resonator in case it gets countered or removed.

  • Academy Ruins replaced a basic Island for the same reason, Strionic Resonator is important and we need ways to retrieve it in case it's in the graveyard.

  • Sun Titan replaced Duplicant because I found that I had enough bounce removal so Exiling wasn't super needed, plus Sun Titan has insane utility by being able to reanimate any 3-CMC or less permanent each time it ETBs or attacks.

9/19/22

  • Cleaned up the Primer a bit, added a section explaining the Strionic Resonator loop and why it's so fundamental to the rest of the combos in the deck.

  • Stonehorn Dignitary came out. I found that with so much repeatable lifegain I wasn't caring too much if people attacked me, plus I needed to make room for newly-discovered Sailor of Means and the rhino was the obvious cut for me.

  • Cloudshift replaced Essence Flux because I wanted to balance the white and blue mana pips a little bit and the +1/+1 counter from Essence Flux is almost never relevent. We'll see if I miss it, it's almost a negligable difference to be honest so you can run either of these without any issues.

9/13/22

9/4/22

  • Took out Whirler Rogue because I wanted to bring the curve down slightly and it's kind of a non-bo with Unquestioned Authority because Brago cannot be targeted by creatures if he's enchanted with it.

  • Added Detention Sphere because I finally understand how to permanently delete stuff with it in the Strionic Resonator + Brago combo. Details have been added to the Combos section.

9/2/22

9/1/22

8/18/22

  • Took out Day of Judgment because this deck had plenty of repeatable removal options already. Threw in Overwhelmed Apprentice for now, it provides another combo for milling our opponents out to win the game.

8/6/22

8/2/22

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Revision 39 See all

(1 year ago)

+1 Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines main
-1 Time Warp main
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #48 position overall 6 years ago
Date added 9 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

36 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

18 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.89
Tokens Ape 3/3 G, Bird 1/1 W, Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Elephant 3-3 G, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Illusion */* U, Treasure
Folders Azorius, Modern, 1st Place FNM, Potential, modern, Random decks, cool modern, Interesting Modern Decks, Buildable, Stuff to try out Later
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