Bruna, the Fading Light - Mono-W Moat Control

Wallycaine
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Post by Wallycaine » 3 years ago

Sinis wrote:
3 years ago
ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
I think Akroma is cool, but she doesn't transition to the 99 of many decks.
I think she's dreadful in the 99. Maybe she has a home in Samut, Voice of Dissent, but probably little else.
I think she's got a lot more homes than you might think at first? Obviously any keyword soup general or lists running Odric, Lunarch Marshal should consider her, but she also seems valuable in token or swarm decks that are running lots of anthems with keywords. For example, she doubles the buff from Always Watching/Intangible Virtue, and slaps an extra +2/+2 onto True Conviction. Even adding an extra +1/+1 from Mass Hysteria is pretty neat, and lots of tribal lords slap a "free" keyword that turns into an extra +1/+1 with her out. I think it's fairly easy to have her in the 99 and still consistently hand out +2/+2 in a lot of decks, which seems like enough given her own size to cost ratio.

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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

toctheyounger wrote:
3 years ago
Ironically, she'd probably be alright in her own 99. It'd make a 2 shot commander damage win at least.
The downside of that being that she has haste so you would have to lead the 7 into the 8. Its not bad but its a bit foretelling when you cast the 7 mana one ahead of your commander what you will be doing.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
toctheyounger wrote:
3 years ago
Ironically, she'd probably be alright in her own 99. It'd make a 2 shot commander damage win at least.
The downside of that being that she has haste so you would have to lead the 7 into the 8. Its not bad but its a bit foretelling when you cast the 7 mana one ahead of your commander what you will be doing.
Yeah, it's not ideal. I guess it's just big boots to fill considering how much of a beater the original is.

I still don't think there's anything overly bad about it, there's nothing wrong with a boardwide buff even if it's just in a token strategy. That's just not Bruna. Also, it is nice that it's every combat, too, like Angelic Skirmisher. Although obviously the former is more flexible catering to an ever changing board state. It's fine, just not auto-add.
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Post by Sinis » 3 years ago

Wallycaine wrote:
3 years ago
I think she's got a lot more homes than you might think at first? Obviously any keyword soup general or lists running Odric, Lunarch Marshal should consider her, but she also seems valuable in token or swarm decks that are running lots of anthems with keywords. For example, she doubles the buff from Always Watching/Intangible Virtue, and slaps an extra +2/+2 onto True Conviction. Even adding an extra +1/+1 from Mass Hysteria is pretty neat, and lots of tribal lords slap a "free" keyword that turns into an extra +1/+1 with her out. I think it's fairly easy to have her in the 99 and still consistently hand out +2/+2 in a lot of decks, which seems like enough given her own size to cost ratio.
I take your point, though there are a few keywords she won't give a buff for (like Eladamri, Lord of Leaves's forestwalk, or Goblin King|SLD's Mountainwalk).

But, you're not wrong, and that's a good angle to find.
toctheyounger wrote:
3 years ago
Yeah, it's not ideal. I guess it's just big boots to fill considering how much of a beater the original is.
Well, I think that's the big thing. OG Akroma's protections and haste (and everything else) is almost still playable. She might rank first in my heart, but she's mechanically just a hair behind Avacyn, and possibly Zetalpa.

My evaluation may be coloured by liking OG Akroma.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Sinis wrote:
3 years ago
Well, I think that's the big thing. OG Akroma's protections and haste (and everything else) is almost still playable. She might rank first in my heart, but she's mechanically just a hair behind Avacyn, and possibly Zetalpa.

My evaluation may be coloured by liking OG Akroma.
Yeah, I hiatused that part of MtG, so I have no especial favour for one over another. By the time I came along Avacyn was about and clearly the top dog in the yard. Still, OG is clearly the best of the bunch, Fury being second and this one lagging at the end.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Commander Legends Review

Well, I guess we've talked back and forth over some of the latest releases, so a lot of this is merely formality, but nonetheless, it's worth a second look to make sure.

Artifacts/Colorless/Lands

  • Commander's Plate - This would be a pretty great addition in many respects. Puts Bruna on a 3 swing commander kill, Brisela on 2, and gives her some protection in combat. I think it's probably going to be pricey, but if I pull a copy somehow anyway, I'll drop it in.
  • Jeweled Lotus - It accelerates casting Bruna, but I'm honestly not sure I care enough. I generally wait to cast her until there's something worth reanimating anyway, so including this seems like it would mess with the tempo of the deck.
  • Staunch Throneguard - It's fine, but with the reintroduction of Monarch, there's probably better options now.
  • Command Beacon - I'm really stoked this got a reprint. Definitely want a copy in here.
  • Guildless Commons - Potentially might help with synergy for the 'less lands than everyone else' ramp plan. Otherwise, it's a strict upgrade to Temple of the False God, I guess? I'm not super hyped for it.
  • Path of Ancestry - I've had my only copy of this in Varina for a while, and it's actually pretty good. Aside from entering tapped, it's a Command Tower with scry, which is actually pretty nice.
  • Seraphic Greatsword - We've been over this one already, really, just the wording spoils it. If it read 'attacks the opponent' instead of 'attacks the player', it'd be significantly better. As it is, I'll pass.
  • War Room - A variant on Bonders' Enclave, which has been fine for me. Probably worth trying out.

White


  • Akroma, Vision of Ixidor - It's a bit of a tough sell in this deck, as we've already decided.
  • Akroma's Will - Pretty cool instant speed combat modifier. Could do some work, would probably take the place of Teferi's Protection in my list, considering it's a game saver and this covers some of the same ground. I don't think it's a must-add, but it could lead to blowouts.
  • Archon of Coronation - I like it even though it isn't on tribe. I guess the swap out is this for Protector of the Crown, which I think is probably better protection of the crown, but doesn't fly. I think the Archon's second ability has probably more application outside of crown protection regardless, so it's probably more valuable to the deck in that respect.
  • Court of Grace - This is an easy add. I was looking forward to Palace Sentinels being reprinted, but I think I'll just pick this up instead. Not quite the same token power of Luminarch Ascension, but draw and tokens is very nice.
  • Keeper of the Accord - Tokens and ramp. I think this guy is pretty situational and meta-dependent, so I'm skeptical. And in terms of running the 'less lands than you' strategy, there's lots of inclusions I simply don't have.
  • Livio, Oathsworn Sentinel - This is kind of neat. Slow flicker for any creature on the field. This could be a neat political tool. Not sure it makes the cut, but it is kind of cool.
  • Promise of Tomorrow - This is weird and new, and I don't dislike it, but it does nonbo with most of what we're running Bruna for.
  • Radiant, Serra Archangel - Really quite expensive, and probably not stunningly worth running.
  • Slash the Ranks - This could be pretty decent. This deck does voltron mode pretty well, and if walkers are a problem for you, it seems worth trialling.
  • Timely Ward - Cool, but I think I'd prefer having Bastion Protector in the list for being a body and thus reanimatable.
  • Triumphant Reckoning - Doesn't hit creatures and tremendously expensive/10. I'll pass.


Not a ton for us, but some neat things to try out nonetheless. What is everyone else picking up?
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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

toctheyounger wrote:
3 years ago
snip...

Not a ton for us, but some neat things to try out nonetheless. What is everyone else picking up?
ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
DECK CHANGES:
  • Tome of LegendsArchon of Coronation Tome of Legends is.... ok but it hardly blows me away. If I play it early on curve it won't really restock counters and while the cost / draw is fairly good I find it a bit limiting in that its a bit out of my control early in the game. Archon of Coronation adds another monarch effect to the deck which as of right now I am ok with but interestingly enough it also helps with token defense in that they have to take monarch from me or kill Archon of Coronation before they can damage me. Lots of the token decks that I tend to worry about often have more proactive gameplans so the archon might be very useful against them.
  • Palace SentinelsCourt of Grace the only downsides of this trade off is that the enchantment doesn't immediately give me a blocker as well as not being a human in the case it would get countered. Court of Grace seems like it will out perform Palace Sentinels in almost every other way.
I haven't pushed so hard on monarch yet that I have felt bad drawing it in duplicate so I am pushing up my monarch cards by one again. Monarch has been a bit more consistent in draw in that it doesn't cost me mana each turn and it can't be destroyed once started. This brings me up to 5 monarch cards but one of them is the land which I have never actually activated yet (honestly I can't really recall having drawn it much either). I have gone back and forth on cutting the monarch land but I think ultimately I need to leave it in for more testing as of right now.

The big thing for me with going up in monarch cards is that they all sort of do something beyond just starting monarch now. They can be used in duplicate to steal the monarch from someone else but they also can serve some sort of purpose if I draw more than one of them.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
toctheyounger wrote:
3 years ago
snip...

Not a ton for us, but some neat things to try out nonetheless. What is everyone else picking up?
ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
DECK CHANGES:
  • Tome of LegendsArchon of Coronation Tome of Legends is.... ok but it hardly blows me away. If I play it early on curve it won't really restock counters and while the cost / draw is fairly good I find it a bit limiting in that its a bit out of my control early in the game. Archon of Coronation adds another monarch effect to the deck which as of right now I am ok with but interestingly enough it also helps with token defense in that they have to take monarch from me or kill Archon of Coronation before they can damage me. Lots of the token decks that I tend to worry about often have more proactive gameplans so the archon might be very useful against them.
  • Palace SentinelsCourt of Grace the only downsides of this trade off is that the enchantment doesn't immediately give me a blocker as well as not being a human in the case it would get countered. Court of Grace seems like it will out perform Palace Sentinels in almost every other way.
I haven't pushed so hard on monarch yet that I have felt bad drawing it in duplicate so I am pushing up my monarch cards by one again. Monarch has been a bit more consistent in draw in that it doesn't cost me mana each turn and it can't be destroyed once started. This brings me up to 5 monarch cards but one of them is the land which I have never actually activated yet (honestly I can't really recall having drawn it much either). I have gone back and forth on cutting the monarch land but I think ultimately I need to leave it in for more testing as of right now.

The big thing for me with going up in monarch cards is that they all sort of do something beyond just starting monarch now. They can be used in duplicate to steal the monarch from someone else but they also can serve some sort of purpose if I draw more than one of them.
I've had very little double up of monarch effects myself, in retrospect. Its never felt like I've had dead cards in hand because I already have the crown, and that's a pretty good sign that the mechanic is doing what it ought to for the deck.

I've also never activated the land, and that's purely because its quite expensive to do so. Nonetheless, it's probably worth having just for the one time you do need to.
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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

Well, ok Valkyrie Harbringer seems decent. Its sort of baneslayer like but it also has the angel production on there. I don't think we have to really force ourselves to be any heavier on lifegain matters to include it so I will probably at some point slide it in for testing.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
Well, ok Valkyrie Harbringer seems decent. Its sort of baneslayer like but it also has the angel production on there. I don't think we have to really force ourselves to be any heavier on lifegain matters to include it so I will probably at some point slide it in for testing.
Yeah, I didn't really click that Kaldheim would have any depth of angels. But yeah, Valkyries. This seems nice, so I'll be keen to see what else crops up in the next month or so.
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Post by Sinis » 3 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
Well, ok Valkyrie Harbringer seems decent. Its sort of baneslayer like but it also has the angel production on there. I don't think we have to really force ourselves to be any heavier on lifegain matters to include it so I will probably at some point slide it in for testing.
It's not quite baneslayer in combat; the first strike really matters.

I've found myself moving away from utilitarian lifegain. I cut (my singleton copy of) Archangel of Thune for another deck, and have been considering cutting Resplendent Angel. I still play Lyra, Angelic Skirmisher and Heliod's Intervention for I-don't-want-to-die lifegain, but, I'm beginning to believe lifegain synergies are just for another deck. That said, I'm pretty sure Valkyrie Harbinger can get a slot because it's so self-contained.

I have been experimenting with other control elements: Pentarch Paladin, and I've been considering Intrepid Hero.

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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

Sinis wrote:
3 years ago
ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
Well, ok Valkyrie Harbringer seems decent. Its sort of baneslayer like but it also has the angel production on there. I don't think we have to really force ourselves to be any heavier on lifegain matters to include it so I will probably at some point slide it in for testing.
It's not quite baneslayer in combat; the first strike really matters.

I've found myself moving away from utilitarian lifegain. I cut (my singleton copy of) Archangel of Thune for another deck, and have been considering cutting Resplendent Angel. I still play Lyra, Angelic Skirmisher and Heliod's Intervention for I-don't-want-to-die lifegain, but, I'm beginning to believe lifegain synergies are just for another deck. That said, I'm pretty sure Valkyrie Harbinger can get a slot because it's so self-contained.

I have been experimenting with other control elements: Pentarch Paladin, and I've been considering Intrepid Hero.
I think this deck does very well against normal attackers, its weakness tends to be excessively large creatures like eldrazi or token strategies. A big advantage of Valkyrie Harbringer is that it both pads our life total against go wide strategies or non combat damage / life loss strategies but it also gives a value over time that control decks can't disregard. When you look at something like Baneslayer Angel, a control deck doesn't really care that much if they take a few hits for 5 damage or that you are gaining life. If you add in there the option to pop out more pressure each turn though they are going to have a harder time ignoring it. I like cards that make it harder to kill us while also escalating the pressure our deck can mount.

Its true that it doesn't hit as hard and it costs a little more to cast. For the record, I don't think I can ever name a time that Lyra Dawnbringer having first strike has mattered for me. It has been extremely rare for me to find situations where I can't attack some opponent with a flyer and even though her size isn't as good, really attacking any opponent should yield plenty of value.

Pentarch Paladin - I came fairly close to putting it in my own list. I would be interested in how it goes if you do test it. Its cool that it can hit enchantments as well. I guess my reservations were somewhat that it takes some time to spin up and unlike Magus of the Disk even after you untap with it, you can still need a number of activations to really hit an established board that hard. I think situations where you can curve it in would be interesting but playing it into an established board it might feel a touch slow. I have been sort of curious if there is a point where I start valuing haste enough to start running Lightning Greaves but I think I am still a ways from that myself.

Intrepid Hero - I really really like the idea of this card, my issue has been sort of two things 1) fear of clones 2) I don't think that big creatures tends to be my issue (this might be my own personal meta). Often times when I die its to some sort of psudo or actual combo or tokens going wide on me.
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Post by Sinis » 3 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
A big advantage of Valkyrie Harbringer is that it both pads our life total against go wide strategies or non combat damage / life loss strategies but it also gives a value over time that control decks can't disregard.
Oh, certainly, I think it is a slam dunk.

Good points about Intrepid Hero.

As for Pentarch Paladin, I'm currently running boots. 7 is steep for 'removal', but, there are plenty of games where I find my opponents have stalled out, or they have some critical piece that I can't just dunk with combat superiority. It helps that it's on tribe, and until they exile, it has a flavour of inevitability.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

I've had Intrepid Hero in my list previously. Lack of haste hurts it, but I guess there's ways around that. As ISB mentions though, its not necessarily fatties that concern me on a board state. I'm certainly looking to take out the combo piece or strongest control element if I can, and that doesn't necessarily mean 4+ power. I find a comparison to Palace Jailer relatively apt. Jailer costs one more but can be spammed (albeit with some work around). It exiles instead of graveyards, but its temporary. Nevertheless I back myself to hold on to the crown in most cases, so I think it's likely to be a permanent removal for all intents and purposes. I just think in general I prefer the latter over the former.

Pentarch Paladin - its cool that it can hit anything in color, not just creatures. I just wonder if its a little overpriced and slow. Obviously its best when reanimated for cheap, but that's something we can't always rely on. With what little haste enabling I have in the list at present I'd be fairly reluctant myself.

I generally agree with regards to lifegain; our new valkyrie pal is great by virtue of requiring no other architecture to do what it does, and thats fantastic. Archangel of Thune, Resplendent Angel....we need other stuff to get them going and thats not something I'm heavily invested in so its probably pretty easy to see what gets the chop if there's any further value valkyrie adds from Kaldheim.
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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

Well, Search for Glory already looks appealing to me. Its Thalia's Lancers for two less mana without the body but generally speaking a 4/4 non flyer isn't much to write home for in this deck for me.

My own legendary list in my deck currently is:
Gisela, the Broken Blade is often what I want so I can meld but I have plenty of times gotten lands as needed and can recall a few times where Avacyn, Angel of Hope was my setup plan. I really like this sort of effect especially at the mana cost we got it as getting a good land in early can be really nice when you don't have enough lands. It can also function as a Sword of the Animist setup if you curve in a 1-2 mana creature.

This effect isn't really new and I have been running Thalia's Lancers since sort of forever but I think its likely that I will try to get it in for testing at the least.
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Post by Sinis » 3 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
This effect isn't really new and I have been running Thalia's Lancers since sort of forever but I think its likely that I will try to get it in for testing at the least.
I do like reanimating Thalia's Lancers, though. There are so many targets that it's almost always advantage.

That said, I think Search for Glory will be an addition somewhere. Just not at the expense of Lancers.

Given how tribal we are, what do you think of Pyre of Heroes? It might let us slide into Emeria Shepherd with a 6-drop, or grind an irrelevant human into a relevant one...

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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

Sinis wrote:
3 years ago
ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
This effect isn't really new and I have been running Thalia's Lancers since sort of forever but I think its likely that I will try to get it in for testing at the least.
I do like reanimating Thalia's Lancers, though. There are so many targets that it's almost always advantage.

That said, I think Search for Glory will be an addition somewhere. Just not at the expense of Lancers.

Given how tribal we are, what do you think of Pyre of Heroes? It might let us slide into Emeria Shepherd with a 6-drop, or grind an irrelevant human into a relevant one...
Yea, I wasn't really think of replacing lancers I was just thinking I would like another means of getting Gisela other than naturally drawing her and the rest of the things I can tutor for is just the gravy on top.

Pyre of Heroes - I guess for me the issue is that I only have something like 5 or so humans that I would want to walk through this with. I am mostly not in the ETB business with my own list so it mostly only leaves a few that are ETB focused (mostly the tutor humans and Palace Jailer) that I am really keen on doing this with. Its true that this could build up some targets for Bruna but I am not sure if that is good enough that I would really want to do it. There are also a lot of gaps in my birthing pod tribal chain where I wouldn't be able to nicely move up or I would have to go get an over time focused creature and pod off of that the next turn. I guess for me I just don't think I would want to put the mana and card investment into it.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

I think Search for Glory will be a decent addition. It grabs a couple of equipment and lands so it doubles as equipment tutor and ramp where needed, so that's nice. I also agree that Thalia's Lancers should stay - I like that I can reuse it from the yard.

Pyre of Heroes - cool card, but like Pod it really does need a dedicated curve, and probably a single dedicated creature type rather than the two dual tribes that we tend to run with here. I'd also want ways to really ham it up as well rather than just aiming for the end of the curve. I'd also like a way to use it more than once a turn, either with untapping or doubling the ability. Otherwise you just sort of end up with your prize fatty in play and nothing else, which isn't really good enough in EDH.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Review

It's that time again, and there's actually angels on Kaldheim! Gotta be honest, I think the harvest is less spicy than it could've been, but that's partially lore-related - valkyrie are more protectors of humans than they are wagers of war, and that definitely comes through in the set. There's still some neat stuff going, so let's run through it.

Artifacts/Colorless/Lands

  • Bloodline Pretender - It's both tribes, but it doesn't do enough for me to care in this instance.
  • Maskwood Nexus - This kind of lets us bust Bruna's cast trigger if we want to. I don't know that it's all that worth it, but it's kinda cool regardless.
  • Goldvein Pick - It's actually low enough to the ground that it could do pretty good things ramping here. I'd sort of dismissed it at first, but it could be worth running. I like that it comes down early and equips for a pretty low cost, it could be worth a trial.
  • Cosmos Elixir - Clearly the 'ok, white can have some draw' card of the set. I sort of hate it for how obviously WotC threw white a meager bone with this. It's fine, but not spectacular.

White


  • Doomskar - I really like it, I think it's pretty strong and will probably try to get it in the list one way or another.
  • Glorious Protector - It's a really good card, but I feel like it really doesn't fit for this deck. It stops stuff hitting our graveyard, and that renders a lot of our reanimation pieces a bit redundant. Not only that, there are relatively few pieces in my list that actually benefit from being slow-blinked in this fashion, so I think I'll pass on it.
  • Resplendent Marshal - Very much a limited format mythic.
  • Righteous Valkyrie - I like that it's a lifegain system that works without any other pieces, as well as a supporting anthem. Not bad, I'll probably pick up a copy.
  • Search for Glory - It's a pretty nice tutor. I'll add it in. Jury is out whether it's worth it being a ramp card with Snow-Covered Plains too. There's probably no harm I guess.
  • Sigrid, God-Favored - A nice ETB, although that's about all I'd run her for. With few enough ways to reanimate her instantly, I think she's probably just a tiny bit too conditional to be worth the add.


That's about us. Nothing busted strong, but a couple of neat options that could give us a bit more reliability. It's funny, this set has more to offer the more I look at it.
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Post by Ruiner » 3 years ago

Any thoughts on Starnheim Aspirant?

I'm usually not rushing to drop Bruna super quick but the potential to play out other angels quicker seems maybe worth at least trying out. Discounting costs can be nice but I don't know that it actually does enough otherwise and I don't know what I would want to cut from my own deck to try it. I went ahead and added one to my singles preorder I placed for this set anyway since it is not a pricey card.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Ruiner wrote:
3 years ago
Any thoughts on Starnheim Aspirant?

I'm usually not rushing to drop Bruna super quick but the potential to play out other angels quicker seems maybe worth at least trying out. Discounting costs can be nice but I don't know that it actually does enough otherwise and I don't know what I would want to cut from my own deck to try it. I went ahead and added one to my singles preorder I placed for this set anyway since it is not a pricey card.
I totally missed it, even though I've seen it before.

My thoughts seem to be to on the same track as yours, in that I just don't know that it does enough, nor what I would drop for it. I'm personally still waiting for my LGS to upload their prices and quantities before I make any orders, but if this one comes through cheap enough it seems reasonable to add it to the cart,
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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

Ruiner wrote:
3 years ago
Any thoughts on Starnheim Aspirant?

I'm usually not rushing to drop Bruna super quick but the potential to play out other angels quicker seems maybe worth at least trying out. Discounting costs can be nice but I don't know that it actually does enough otherwise and I don't know what I would want to cut from my own deck to try it. I went ahead and added one to my singles preorder I placed for this set anyway since it is not a pricey card.
Generally speaking there are two optimal reasons to run cost reduction.
  • Your plan is to cast a lot of spells in a turn that the cost reduction applies to. Think along the lines of like 2-3 spells a turn for cost reduction and suddenly you are saving a lot of mana. Cost reduction is often something that I consider in some sort of a cantrip heavy type of build where I am not necessarily running a lot of one drop spells. I have a Sram auras deck for instance that I run some cost reduction in because it tends to draw a lot of cards and a lot of the aruas cost 2-3 mana. One other place that cost reduction tends to work is with buyback spells. Cost reducing Corpse Dance or Capsize for instance can get a lot more appealing.
  • The cost reduction some how fits into a nice curve for a proactive commander. This spell costs 3 and our commander costs 7. It does curve well in an opening hand in this way but being that Bruna tends to be more reactive I tend to not play her on curve very often otherwise I would likely also have things like Worn Powerstone, Mana Vault, and Grim Monolith in my own list.
Beyond this, my own list only contains 8 Angels + Bruna. It just doesn't make sense to try to cost reduce angels in part because Bruna is more reactive (or at least how I play her is). I think at best, you would want to have several ramp effects in your list already before I would consider this human and even then I think its quite low in my priority of ramp effects. I don't draw enough cards to justify cost reduction in my own list.



I think there are two other cards that your review didn't cover beyond the cost reducer toc:
  • Tyrite Sanctum - I actually think going the full distance and trying to make anything indestructible is kind of hit or miss for me but more of what I was thinking is this land lets you buff bruna into a 6 and or even 7 powered creature. She has a nice back side to her but at six power she can kill titans and at seven power she goes down to a three attack kill zone. I am not saying that this is like some auto include land or anything but I think its worth discussing and I don't think it would be incorrect for anyone to run if they so choose. Utility lands really come down to what utility you prefer to have and given its a land that taps for mana still and enters untapped I think its quite viable even if I don't know that it would make my own cut.
  • Valkyrie Harbinger - We talked about this angel before. Its sort of a cross between a Baneslayer Angel and a Resplendent Angel. I think this is the most playable card of the set as far as Bruna goes and I entirely plan to at least test it myself. I have little doubt that it will work out where other things I include just feeling the need to test them. Its useful in its lifegain but the tokens it makes are what sells me on it. It applies good pressure (talking about over time combined with its tokens), pads our life total, and insulates us from opposing swarm decks. Its most things I want out of my own angels to be honest.
I think Valkyrie Harbinger is probably my only real take away from this set but Tyrite Sanctum is an interesting thought still. If we weren't recursion based, dealt with more wide boards, or had more ETB focus I would maybe be interested in Glorious Protector but as it stands I think that card is better in other decks than Bruna.
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Post by Ruiner » 3 years ago

I definitely like Tyrite Sanctum. Beyond just Bruna, being able to hit some other legends in my deck like Linvala, Keeper of Silence or Gisela, the Broken Blade could totally be useful in a pinch too. I will likely be trying it out myself.

And yeah, I don't think Starnheim Aspirant is going to find a home in a Bruna deck for the most part. Just figured I'd bring it up since it is a tangentially related card being about angels for a deck that tends to run some number of them.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
Tyrite Sanctum - I actually think going the full distance and trying to make anything indestructible is kind of hit or miss for me but more of what I was thinking is this land lets you buff bruna into a 6 and or even 7 powered creature. She has a nice back side to her but at six power she can kill titans and at seven power she goes down to a three attack kill zone. I am not saying that this is like some auto include land or anything but I think its worth discussing and I don't think it would be incorrect for anyone to run if they so choose. Utility lands really come down to what utility you prefer to have and given its a land that taps for mana still and enters untapped I think its quite viable even if I don't know that it would make my own cut.
Valkyrie Harbinger - We talked about this angel before. Its sort of a cross between a Baneslayer Angel and a Resplendent Angel. I think this is the most playable card of the set as far as Bruna goes and I entirely plan to at least test it myself. I have little doubt that it will work out where other things I include just feeling the need to test them. Its useful in its lifegain but the tokens it makes are what sells me on it. It applies good pressure (talking about over time combined with its tokens), pads our life total, and insulates us from opposing swarm decks. Its most things I want out of my own angels to be honest.
I don't really get into Tyrite Sanctum to be honest. It's fine but nothing stellar. Enters untapped, nice. Counters are cool, indestructible too, so I guess it's a nice mana sink when needed. Like you say, I couldn't fault someone for wanting to run it, but I don't necessarily think it's an auto include. I like the idea of Bruna being pumpable, and I guess the opportunity cost of running it is quite low, so there's probably no harm in trying it out.

Valkyrie Harbinger - Again, not sure how I missed this one - it's in the commander releases right? The stats are nice, and it's going to be able to generate a decent sized board state. I think it's an easy add.
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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

OOOOO commander spoils. I immediately came here :o
  • Angel of the Ruins - Ohhhhhhh man thats nice. I love that it can cycle and find us a land and be ready to get rezed by Bruna. This is such a good effect I am so happy to see it on an angel. I will be 100% surprised if this isn't a super slam dunk easy fit for this deck.
  • Archaeomancer's Map - Wow, its a Tithe effect always gets us two lands and also functions as a psudo Burgeoning situationally. Getting two more lands to hand for three mana on its own is fairly good but wow thats a nice effect to let us get ahead on board if someone is ramping. I guess that is yet another effect that benefits from the potential of some of the Lotus Field sort of sacrifices too if anyone is still trying to go deep on these (lowering land count is good for the map putting lands into play).
  • Monologue Tax - I don't know how I feel about these effects. I think that they are ok but I also think they can be sort of a temporary solution to getting mana. I rarely play with Smothering Tithe effects and I still to this day feel they are over rated and annoying. I don't know where I stand on this new one yet. Its nice that it costs less to cast but if opponents are casting 2+ spells frequently they are also probably drawing cards. I don't know what my take is yet.
The angel seems like its totally going to go the distance for me. I will probably throw the map in for testing and I think it seems cool on paper but I guess we will see how it goes. The enchant, I will probably pass on for the same reasons I don't run Smothering Tithe.
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