Shabraz and Brallin - The Shark and His Boy

[MeowZeDung]

The heartwarming tale of two unlikely friends and their epic quest to draw all the cards and smash face.

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The Shark and His Boy

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commanders (2)

1 Brallin, Skyshark Rider

1 Shabraz, the Skyshark

Ramp (12)

1 Sol Ring

1 Thought Vessel

1 Arcane Signet

1 Talisman of Progress

1 Talisman of Creativity

1 Talisman of Conviction

1 Izzet Signet

1 Boros Signet

1 Azorius Signet

1 Chromatic Lantern

1 Midnight Clock

1 Smothering Tithe

Interaction (12)

1 Elixir of Immortality

1 Path to Exile

1 Arcane Denial

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Flawless Maneuver

1 Chaos Warp

1 Generous Gift

1 Surly Badgersaur

1 Commit // Memory

1 Supreme Verdict

1 Evacuation

1 Flood of Tears

Loot/Rummage (8)

1 Careful Study

1 Gamble

1 Faithless Looting

1 Tectonic Reformation

1 Izzet Charm

1 Frantic Search

1 Attunement

1 Jeskai Ascendancy

Mass Discard (4)

1 Dangerous Wager

1 Ox of Agonas

1 Bedlam Reveler

1 Breakthrough

Mass Draw (8)

1 Rhystic Study

1 Rielle, the Everwise

1 Whirlwind of Thought

1 Time Reversal

1 Mindmoil

1 Consecrated Sphinx

1 Arjun, the Shifting Flame

1 The Magic Mirror

Wheels (13)

1 Leave // Chance

1 Tolarian Winds

1 Shattered Perception

1 Collective Defiance

1 Windfall

1 Forgotten Creation

1 Fateful Showdown

1 Vanish into Memory

1 Khorvath's Fury

1 Incendiary Command

1 Chandra, Flamecaller

1 Cavalier of Flame

1 Reforge the Soul

Damage Dealers (5)

1 Drake Haven

1 Psychosis Crawler

1 Chandra's Ignition

1 The Locust God

1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Lands (36)

1 Command Tower

1 Reflecting Pool

1 Exotic Orchard

1 Raugrin Triome

1 Mystic Monastery

1 Flooded Strand

1 Ash Barrens

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Steam Vents

1 Skycloud Expanse

1 Rugged Prairie

1 Cascade Bluffs

1 Glacial Fortress

1 Clifftop Retreat

1 Sulfur Falls

1 Irrigated Farmland

1 Battlefield Forge

1 Shivan Reef

1 Prairie Stream

1 Sunbaked Canyon

1 Fiery Islet

1 Geier Reach Sanitarium

1 Desolate Lighthouse

1 Strip Mine

1 Rogue's Passage

1 Emergence Zone

1 Drownyard Temple

1 Plains

3 Island

4 Mountain

Approximate Total Cost:

[MeowZeDung]

The above is a first pass at this deck. I can't help but feel that I'm missing something really obvious. . . Feedback very welcome! I imagine it will change a great deal before I shine it up and solidify it as a primer. Note that I'm probably going to avoid Narset, Parter of Veils and Spirit of the Labyrinth, and I'm trying to avoid filling the deck with wheels that hit everyone since that's miserable to play against. That means only the good ones like Windfall for now and passing on Jace's Archivist and Magus of the Wheel and whatnot. I'm also not independently wealthy, so no Wheel of Fortune.

I'll proxy the new stuff and get some test games in soon!

The name of the game is pretty straightforward with these two best buddies: filter, loot, draw, discard, and wheel with one or both of them in play. Endgame plan is to go all stompy with their mutual "flample" activations, machine gun the table with Brallin's trigger, or wheel a bunch with one of the Niv-Mizzets or Psychosis Crawler in play.

[pokken]

commit // memory feels like it oughta be in here, as well as echo of eons. Obviously those don't discard and trigger bralin, but I think they are probably worth playing.

You might like alms collector as a not-quite-as-savage wheel guy.

[Ardeyn]

There probably should be the Curiosity, Tandem Lookout package in there for Brallin for the end of turn loop/win if you have more than seven cards during your end step.
It's also just awesome value in this deck, when you draw a card per opponent for every card you discard...

Ardeyn

[MeowZeDung]

commit // memory feels like it oughta be in here, as well as echo of eons. Obviously those don't discard and trigger bralin, but I think they are probably worth playing.

You might like alms collector as a not-quite-as-savage wheel guy.

Ah, yes! Forgot about Memory and Echo of Eons. They can take over Elixir of Immortality and Time Reversal's slots. Edit: crap, just remembered Eons is the one I don't own, Echo Storm is the one I do own. I get them confused because of mildly similar art and "Echo". Ah well, eons will have to wait a bit.

I'm keeping it pretty creature light to put some oomph behind stuff like The Magic Mirror and Rielle, the Everwise, so even though Alms Collector lets them have a card when I wheel, I'll pass for now. Plus, the difference between completely obliterating my opponents' hands and leaving them all with a single card seems like a tease. If I was building with that approach I'd rather just go all in and make it as oppressive as possible to win quicker. I like how you pretend it's a little bit nicer though :laugh:

There probably should be the Curiosity, Tandem Lookout package in there for Brallin for the end of turn loop/win if you have more than seven cards during your end step.
It's also just awesome value in this deck, when you draw a card per opponent for every card you discard...

Ardeyn

I'm generally not opposed to infinite combos, especially if they have several pieces and take some work to set up, but I refuse to put Curiosity in any deck that also has a Niv-Mizzet. I just hate it. Personal preference is all. Thank you for the suggestion though. If I wasn't packing either Niv I'd probably run it for Brallin. Edit: I suppose the argument could be made that it's better to cut the Nivs and run these two to lower the curve, but they would be dead cards without Brallin doing his thing, or close enough to dead at least. I'll think on it.

[darrenhabib]

These guys reminded me of a kids movie title back in the day..




Surly Badgersaur is a reason to play these types of decks in the first play. Smothering Tithe is a must.

Tectonic Reformation could be good.

[MeowZeDung]

Surly Badgersaur is a reason to play these types of decks in the first play. Smothering Tithe is a must.

Tectonic Reformation could be good

Oh geez, how could I forget Surly Badgersaur? I was just moaning about how it wasn't a beast so I could include it in my beast tribal cycling deck, and then I go and forget it in a deck it would really be busted in! I didn't think about Smothering Tithe either, which is silly because I put in Consecrated Sphinx for the same reasons that tithe is great here.

Tectonic Reformation would be good, but I don't know what I'd get rid of to make room tbh.

EDIT: Mind Stone → Smothering Tithe
Time Wipe → Surly Badgersaur

[MeowZeDung]

Another small tweak:

treasure cruise → drake haven
dig through time → the Locust god

I forgot that haven triggers on discard, not just cycling. The Locust god is just good. I think the creature density both will give me are better than the delve draw spells in a deck stuffed with wheels.

[Tevesh]

Geier Reach Sanitarium is a pretty low opportunity cost way for you to get draws and discards on demand.

[MeowZeDung]

So it is.

mountain → geier reach sanitarium
plains → desolate lighthouse

[SirGregarious]

Hi. These partners are awesome and Jeskai is my favorite way to play, so I was excited to check out what people were brewing for these two.

Your list looks really fun but I think you're a little heavy on the mana. 39 lands and 12 ramp feels like a ton to me, especially with the amount of card draw you have. Have you given it some testing and found flooding to be an issue? You mentioned wanting to find room for Tectonic Reformation in an earlier post, but I think the root of that desire might be because you're drawing too many lands. I would probably run closer to 35 lands in this kind of deck.

For finishers, have you taken a look at Chandra's Ignition? It doesn't draw you cards so it might be a little off theme, but you're likely to have a pretty big shark or shark rider at one point or another. It's a more "fair" way to close a game compared to Curiosity or Ophidian Eye. I'm not sure if Underworld Breach is a little too combo-y for your tastes, but it could definitely do some work here.

There's a couple of other wheel effects you might consider as well, some of which are repeatable. Jace's Archivist or Whirlpool Warrior, just to name a couple. The Chandra, Flamecaller that comes in the precon is a repeatable wheel as well. This deck has a lot of damage in it so I don't think decking yourself is too much of a concern, but Elixir of Immortality and Emergency Powers or similar Timetwister style effects could be some good reset buttons in case you find your threats getting answered a lot.

[MeowZeDung]

@sirgregarious: great feedback! I haven't tested yet, so this is definitely subject to a lot of change.

With both a 4 and 5 mana commander one of which I predict will attract removal often, I'd rather err on the side of hitting my land drops and wheeling away surplus lands. Tectonic reformation is a good way to handle the same issue of flood and also stay on theme. Elixir of immortality was in the original list and just recently got cut. Both of these are low enough cmc that I don't feel bad cutting a couple of lands for them, and you make good points.

I'm going to try and avoid too many wheels that effect the whole table, and doubly so if they're slow like jace's archivist. 1) it often helps opponents unless your griefing them with a narset, parter of veils effect 2) I ran an izzet wheel list years ago and everyone I played against HATED the "new hand dance" 3) I've got enough awesome cards to work with without shoving all the "global" wheels in. 4) underworld breach is sweet, and I combo gleefully with it in kykar, wind's fury as a win button, but that's enough for my taste. I like variety, otherwise I'd just play the one deck that most efficiently pulls a breach combo out of a hat. Here it would amount to: breach, escape my cheapest wheel until I win. Tada!

Elixir + time reversal should be enough, and they're cheaper than emergency powers. I do like instant speed or a free permanent though... hmmm I'll keep it in mind for a curve topper, but I've already got several.

I forgot about Chandra's ignition hitting each opponent... the flavor is on point. I like it. I'll run it over the firemind.

Edit: I was going to just swap Forgotten Creation out for Chandra, Flamecaller as a strict upgrade, but I love that stupid card and this is the deck for it. So, I guess I'm going down on lands sooner than I though, what the heck. 36 + 12 sources of ramp and all the card draw in the world should be fine. I can always add some back in. Edit the edit: On the subject of having enough ramp in the deck, and because white is by far the lightest color in the deck, I'm going to tool around a tad more with the manabase as well and take Myriad Landscape out as a liability in the mid-late game, and a Plains as unnecessary.

evolving wilds → elixir of immortality
terramorphic expanse → tectonic reformation
niv-mizzet, the firemind → Chandra's ignition
Plains → Chandra, flamecaller
Myriad Landscape → Mountain

[MeowZeDung]

I like drownyard temple here.

island → drownyard temple

[MeowZeDung]

Alrighty, after far too long with this being a purely theoretical deck I got it sleeved up and played a 3 player game with it tonight. It was pretty bananas. Long story short, I got to live the dream of having both commanders, Smothering Tithe, and Consecrated Sphinx in play at the same time, then playing a Khorvath's Fury naming everyone as Friend. Finally, I finished it off with a Bedlam Reveler, nuking the table with Brallin, Skyshark Rider as I discarded 35ish cards.

Some notes:

Tectonic Reformation was good several times for getting me set up to a point where I had nothing but gas and the next turn's land in hand.

Adding even more steps to resolving Jeskai Ascendancy triggers is a test of just how quickly you can reasonably play out your turn (all while you have the most fun a person can have whilst playing MtG of course).

Commit // Memory was VERY good. I was able to time it so that it was the second to last card in hand out of my opening seven and first few draws, so Commit tucked a threat on opponent's end step, and Memory reloaded my hand with Tectonic Reformation in play to sculpt even more after the draw 7.

Drake Haven will probably be my first cut. I got it out on turn 3 and never used it. I thought maybe I would a few turns later once I had Smothering Tithe in hand and would need somewhere to sink all that mana. Turns out I had plenty to spend it on.

Forgotten Creation is another one that I'm eyeing. I love the idea of that card, and I've always wanted it to have a home, but when I drew it tonight all I could think is that it was a do-nothing compared to my other options. Too slow for the deck perhaps. I think it will get to see another game or two, but I'm leaning towards cutting it.

Ideas for what could take Drake Haven's slot off the top of my head: Emergency Powers, Burning Inquiry, Chasm Skulker.

[MeowZeDung]

Jammed another game with S & B tonight without first making the changes I mentioned. Silly me.

It was a fun game and I had my moments, but I unfortunately lost in the final 1v1 to a massive Drana, Liberator of Malakir/Lashwrithe.

Highlights included:

Flood of Tears bouncing a metric crap-ton of elves, vampires, enchantments, and equipment back to opponents' hands while sending back my Midnight Clock, Arcane Signet, Smothering Tithe, and Jeskai Ascendancy and putting Tithe right back into play.

Shabraz, the Skyshark gained me something like 15-20 life over the course of the game and, unbeknownst to me, kept me out of Exsanguinate range until the final turn before Drana swung in unblocked.

Fierce Guardianship (for free, of course ) nailing a Profane Command where =10

Lowlights included:

I cast Vanish into Memory on Drana at one point, forgetting that she had more toughness than strength. I thought I was slick because she would be unequipping a Sword of the Animist as a result of blinking, but the extra toughness I didn't account for made the draw/discard ratio a wash. It was still probably the right play at that point in time, but nevertheless I need to be more careful with that card.

While the Flood of Tears was definitely necessary the turn I played it, it sucked sending a Midnight Clock with 9 counters on it back to my hand. Oh well.

The turn before Flood, I debated dropping Chandra, Flamecaller to deal 4 to everything, which would have wiped the board of all elves and most vampires minus Drana and I think one other. In hindsight, I think that was the better play, but I was greedy and wanted to keep Chandra to wheel with a couple turns later. I ended up pitching her to something else because I HAD to play Shabraz and couldn't afford her to, so that decision didn't age well.

I drew Drake Haven off a Jeskai Ascendancy trigger at one point and mentally kicked myself for not making changes before the game. To be fair, I don't think I had Emergency Powers mana at that moment.

The deck is fun. Wheely, wheely fun.