Chromaticus wrote: ↑2 years ago
So if I'm getting the gist, this deck likes to land a couple evasive dudes including Breena, the Demagogue and keep the card advantage flowing while mostly playing reactive removal spells and holding up protection.
Yeah you got it in one
The *best* case is you have 2+ fliers and are drawing 2 cards a turn by attacking the 2 people ahead on life. then just chill on those guys and let them get tall off Breena triggers. On average I get 4-6 counters a turn cycle (since I trigger breena twice and someone else does it once), so +6/+6 spread out by 2s adds up to tall creatures very fast. Usually I am to put voltron damage on one person and normal on another.
The most typical play patterns for victories are 1) someone else gets lethal (Craterhoof, etc.) and then dies to one of my combat tricks, 2) someone else has to sweep the board and I play a sweeper protection spell, 3) they just let me kill them with tall dudes (which happens more than you'd expect). Most tutored for cards are
Teferi's Protection Inkshield and
Comeuppance. This deck just goes crazy with those play patterns because people swing out and then get popped on the crackback.
Chromaticus wrote: ↑2 years ago
You had mentioned the monarchy playing a part in your deck construction, but I'm just seeing Palace Jailer — is that something you're still on? Figure I can go a little heavier on that theme since I opened up more goodstuff slots.
My other main monarch card was
Archon of Coronation but it just never quite seemed to do it. So many ways around it -- I had a game the other day that I would have lost had my opponent realized that
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist had first trike and could disable archon before the lethal combat damage came through, and I was like "okay, that's enough losing to the quirky stuff that gets around archon." It just kept happening like one game I got infect killed, infinite combos that drain life, blah blah etc etc.
Right now it's just jailer. In a budget deck you could play the land that makes you monarch, and the damage redirection guy is playable
Protector of the Crown.
When I get monarch, it's still crazy powerful though.
Chromaticus wrote: ↑2 years ago
I love the alternate version budget advice- makes those bad boys a lot more affordable.
I've soaked up a lot of expensive cards just by playing for a long time but I try to be cost conscious. Glad it helps!
I usually use a mix of Ebay, Ebay OBO, TCGplayer, and buylisting to Cardkingdom to buy stuff. CoolstuffInc for foil preorders (which I use for foiling my main deck).
Chromaticus wrote: ↑2 years ago
I'm used to more proactive strategies in general, so the thought of holding up Comeuppance / Inkshield mana seemed like time-walking myself. Now I'm considering the draw lands Arch of Orazca Bonders' Enclave and War Room for mana sinks.
Realized I didn't answer this --
So the thing is, even if you don't have a mana sink, you really win either way if people don't make you use
Comeuppance because if they don't, your creatures are growing big through the normal action of the game. Board stalls where minimal stuff happens benefit Breena. Your guys grow without spending mana every attack step, which is virtual free mana.
The other thing is you get kind of freerolls after a while playing this deck; if you pass turn with 7 mana up and a couple of flying 8/8s and a 6/6 first strike blocker (say
Knight of the White Orchid) people will just not mess with you because they respect the
Angel of the Dire Hour. So you get the benefit of the card without having to cast it (and sometimes without even having it). People always look at me when I have 5 and fear getting
Inkshielded.
It's a fun political mindgame, and sometimes you lose because of it - we can't stop every combo and sometimes people don't grow our creatures for us or apply life total pressure for us. But most of the time it benefits us either way - if they just sit there not drawing cards off Breena, it's also good for us because there's really only so many things they can be doing and we can answer most of them.
Most control-ish decks in commander do suffer with the 'what do I do with my mana?' but because Breena advances your board state just by attacking and letting others attack you often don't have to spend too much effort doing so.
So you train them to respect your combat bs, then they try to peck you and you
Maze of Ith them, then they try to combo you out and you
Teferi's Protection or
Anguished Unmaking their combo piece, then they try to
Wrath of God you and you
Guardian of Faith. It starts to generate free virtual cards by people worrying about all the different vectors you can interact from.
Doesn't always go as plan, but the combination of CA + self-growing board lets you just jam a crapload of interaction and hope for the best
(ephara, feather, varina and breena). 
