Let's Brew: Burakos' Disposable Heroes

[pokken]

Let's Brew Burakos' Disposable Heroes!

I've always loved Proclamation of Rebirth and similar cards -- but this doesn't have to be an orzhov deck (lord knows I have enough). My thought is simple:

Make a ton of 1-2 drop trash creatures that make a full party so we can ramp like crazy off Burakos, and Skullclamp some more dudes.

Almost any color set would probably work; Orzhov, Rakdos, even Dimir would be OK, and BG has a lot of nice cheap creatures that put in work (Oakhame Adversary, Grim Flayer). White and Red both have great ways to find skullclamp. Green brings Evolutionary Leap to the party, Blue brings wizards out the wazoo.

The theme is:

Burakos is a party leader, but he's not very good at his job. He has a never ending crew of people he gets killed in dungeons, while he profits. The deck should use his henchmen aggressively to turn them into cards, treasures, food, more party members, whatever.

What ideas do we have for:
1) Great cheap creatures to play (see: Grim Flayer or Robber of the Rich)
2) Great ways to turn those creatures into cards, murder, anything useful
3) What is the best background?

[Serenade]

Folk Hero
People flock to him solely because due to word-of-mouth…and only find out the truth of his leadership later.

[pokken]

Background thoughts, initially - scratching all the mono black decks out of the gate -

This one is actually great, but it's clockwork heroes. Being able to turn his idiot henchmen into actual cards directly is sick. But are there enough artifact dudes to make this work? there're quite a few artifact changelings, but not sure about rogues/wizards/clerics/warriors.

Feels like this one would be wayyyy too hard to get going, but maybe fun?

I feel like making a 4/4 every turn is way too slow.

It's cool, but cheap creatures rarely have solid ETBs *and* Types?

Squirrel army? Seems alright, especially if our theme is Skullclamp. We could use Earthcraft and Cryptolith Rite and similar to do crazy stuff, potentially, like chain clamping your dudes.

Well, doublestrike is good I guess, but not super nice synergy.

ugh, this one feels automatically the best. Every card in the deck will share a card type with him and you get 4 types. That's...really good.

I need another orzhov deck like I need a hole in the head but at least this one brings its own ramp package.

I guess, double down on treasure tokens, feels OK. Red has a lot of nice stuff, and haste enablers too.

Making up to 3 1/1 fliers as turn seems alright. Kinda a lot of work though.

Growing him is cool. Dissuading attacks is cool. Seems decent if a little slow.

Feels like bad prosper with extra steps

Not the worst, but really dependent on the opponents to play along.

being a 10/10 would be fine I guess, but boring

I...maybe, but very dependent on what's on the board and what you're doing with the deck. Lots of mana investment.

The payoff of dinging people for 1 and having to pay mana for it feels awful.

Unblockable is fine I guess, whatever

Brings card advantage and pump, and making treasures is a good way to pay for those impulsed cards.

Making a single 1/1 feels pointless unless we're skullclamp.dec, which is not the absolute worst.


Bottom line, seems like red/white have the best options to me - Red brings brawler, and White brings card draw on Folk Hero.

[pokken]

Folk Hero
People flock to him solely because due to word-of-mouth…and only find out the truth of his leadership later.

I feel like this is the obvious answer, despite my proclivity for orzhov. White has a ton of stuff that synergizes, and having both ramp and card draw in the zone makes deck building super simplistic.

The mechanic of having 5 different types to match is just, super good.

This is an actual gold mine:
https://edhrec.com/commanders/burakos-p ... -folk-hero

[Serenade]

Oops, I forgot that was the mythic background in that deck.

I had an Athreos deck based on 1- and 2-drops that self-sacrificed for various effects. Stuff like Benevolent Bodyguard, Kami of False Hope, Vampire Hexmage. It ended up not being that fun, but I always won with it. Not sure how many of those cards fit into party tribal but figured I would mention it.

[Ruiner]

As far as cheap disposable on theme creatures are concerned, since you are in black at minimum I'd consider [cardBloodsoaked Champion[/card], Cult Conscript, Reassembling Skeleton. In my Nalia de'Arnise deck I've found these to be valuable recurring creatures to keep a Warrior on the battlefield.

Viscera Seer (a wizard!) and Attrition are some other decent sacrifice outlets to get some sort of payoff.

White definitely gives you a lot of strong cheap options in my party based deck experience.

If you go blue you have access to a number of cheap unblockable/evasive 1 and 2 drop rogues that are clamp-able and great with any other equipment you may consider. Obviously counter magic and some strong wizards are a plus. Being able to run ETB tutor wizards like Trinket Mage and similar cards in that cycle can grab you Skullclamp and other sac outlets like altars or even just decent equipment, so you could end up running some decent silver bullet toolbox stuff. If you are looking at alt-win conditions Mechanized Production could be pretty easy to pull off with your treasure production.

If you go red, you can get a number of extra combat step triggering cards like Relentless Assault which could come in handy with the commander's ability. Also red has a number of rogues (including Aladdin . . .), a fair selection of warriors and some decent wizards.

Green I'm not feeling like it has the greatest party members really but maybe I am underestimating it.

I know you dismissed monoblack but Haunted One could be pretty good as a background for that commander potentially. Monoblack lets you lean into some good card draw options that might be harder to pull off in two color decks like Necropotence as well if that is appealing.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I say you take it Orzhov and go with the stupid Folk Hero. White has the best one drops in the format and Proclamation, Patch Up, and Call of the Death Dweller, and Return to the Ranks will keep your board flush withh goons.

If you go with any other color, the one drop quality drops dramatically. Green gives you dorks with no relevant subtypes, blue is even more scant with viable small goons that work with Burakos, and Red just seems to push you away from goons and into treasure synergy.

That all being said, you should just play ISB Raffine like me. You get a whole other color, the sweetest small goons, and aggression that always demands a response. The filtering naturally feeds into the mass reanimation you crave to play and there will never ever be a better fit for them than Raffine imo.

[pokken]

That all being said, you should just play ISB Raffine like me. You get a whole other color, the sweetest small goons, and aggression that always demands a response. The filtering naturally feeds into the mass reanimation you crave to play and there will never ever be a better fit for them than Raffine imo.

The interesting aspect of Burakos, Party Leader/Folk Hero to me is that it brings ramp *and* draw on the same package, freeing up a *ton* of deck slots for total garbage. Raffine brings...not really needing to ramp =P

I've been trying hard to constrain myself to not playing as much blue these days, and I'm kinda tired of paying for 3 color manabases. So I might give this one a go. It definitely feels like the most likely to build right of all the other things I've seen.

And man Return to the Ranks is insane.

[RxPhantom]

I like Dutiful Attendant here. It's a warrior, likes to die, and already existed to be literal dragon fodder in the first place.

[Serenade]

I might try out this deck with Feywild Visitor/blue one-drops, so it mimics Edric in UB. I did it with Karlach, Fury of Avernus, but the tribal restriction seems fun.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

That all being said, you should just play ISB Raffine like me. You get a whole other color, the sweetest small goons, and aggression that always demands a response. The filtering naturally feeds into the mass reanimation you crave to play and there will never ever be a better fit for them than Raffine imo.

The interesting aspect of Burakos, Party Leader/Folk Hero to me is that it brings ramp *and* draw on the same package, freeing up a *ton* of deck slots for total garbage. Raffine brings...not really needing to ramp =P

I've been trying hard to constrain myself to not playing as much blue these days, and I'm kinda tired of paying for 3 color manabases. So I might give this one a go. It definitely feels like the most likely to build right of all the other things I've seen.

And man Return to the Ranks is insane.

Fair enough, anything beyond 2 color gets pricey quick. I'll also concede that Blue is obnoxious but you can't do better than countermagic to protect a boardstate. In Raffine's defense though, you don't need to ramp if your curve ends at five. Heck, she barely needs card draw. Just deploy and destroy.

[toctheyounger]

I got Burakos a little while ago with plans to eventually at some point brew him. Then I spread myself thin in all the colors I would've used to brew him with Delina, Wild Mage and Dihada, Binder of Wills, both decks I absolutely delight in playing, so he's a backburner for now.

I feel like the most obvious colors are w or r with Folk Hero or Guild Artisan. I personally like the Rakdos area more with things like Grim Hireling, Professional Face-Breaker, Robber of the Rich, Disciple of the Vault, Reckless Fireweaver and such to just really aggressively slant towards value through combat and Burakos' trigger. You could, but wouldn't really need to combo, it feels like if you hit the board early you could just hammer home a win with time and tempo.

[Chromaticus]

I built this deck a while back and still have it together:

viewtopic.php?t=56421

If you get going on this, I'd love feedback on my list.

[pokken]

I built this deck a while back and still have it together:

viewtopic.php?t=56421

If you get going on this, I'd love feedback on my list.

I see orzhov signet in a deck with a 2 drop commander and I downvote! (I do understand the sequencing advantages lol I just think I'd rather have more 1 drop and 2 drop partiers almost always. Lightning greaves and crashing drawbridge both likely to outperform rocks I think)

Lots of great creature selections in there and the fetch ramp package on point. Noncreature pile feels quite haphazard.

This is a Return to the Ranks deck.

[aliciaofthevast]

Rather than these two, consider Nalia de'Arnise from the same deck because getting a future sight in the command zone is pretty good?

Otherwise, the clan crafter route is extra spice because U brings wizards and rogues while b has a surprising amount of clerics and rogues with few wizards. You even get warriors with fleshbag marauder. I bet you could even do some stuff with Rotlung Reanimator if you reach into the wayback machine!

But thematically Burrakos + Criminal Past is spooky 😎

[pokken]

Rather than these two, consider Nalia de'Arnise from the same deck because getting a future sight in the command zone is pretty good?

Otherwise, the clan crafter route is extra spice because U brings wizards and rogues while b has a surprising amount of clerics and rogues with few wizards. You even get warriors with fleshbag marauder. I bet you could even do some stuff with Rotlung Reanimator if you reach into the wayback machine!

But thematically Burrakos + Criminal Past is spooky 😎

Definitely worth thinking on, but imho burakos + folk hero is a significant step up power level wise--tons of ramp *and* draw. Still trying to decide if I want to build another BWx deck though

[aliciaofthevast]

Just don't forget that folk hero is only a 1/turn trigger! Oh and also remember the honor among thieves cards! Especially Forge, Neverwinter Charlatan!

[Ruiner]

Definitely worth thinking on, but imho burakos + folk hero is a significant step up power level wise--tons of ramp *and* draw. Still trying to decide if I want to build another BWx deck though

Nalia is a lot of fun if you want to just go full on aggressive. She definitely feels far more aggro overall than Burakos. The +1/+1 counters can start piling up awfully quick. I'd certainly include Nalia in any BW Burakos deck though.

And you can't have too many BW decks, as long as they all feel different. Maybe I'm biased though, I currently have four BW decks (with a few other BWx decks). It is a fun color combo.

[pokken]

Nalia is a lot of fun if you want to just go full on aggressive. She definitely feels far more aggro overall than Burakos. The +1/+1 counters can start piling up awfully quick. I'd certainly include Nalia in any BW Burakos deck though.

And you can't have too many BW decks, as long as they all feel different. Maybe I'm biased though, I currently have four BW decks (with a few other BWx decks). It is a fun color combo.

Yeah I think she definitely belongs in there. I'm thinking more like a midrange deck, using the mana advantage from treasures to be able to maintain lots of interaction and maybe deploy some bigger boys.

I agree about Orzhov. The interesting thing about it is that neither color really does traditional commander stuff that well as good stuff (ramp or draw) - there's always some kinda angle to it. So there's a decent variety of orzhov archetypes that subvert the game in different ways to gain tempo and cards.

Gaining life, sacrificing creatures, attacking specific people, etc etc.