First new EDH deck I've built in a while. Titania was a Commander I always wanted to try but never actually got around to making. I was getting kind of bored of some of my decks, and I decide to do some brewing one day out of boredom. Realized I already had about 70% of the cards for the deck, so I decided to commit and pick up the few cards I didn't already have.
I think it's a pretty standard monogreen stompy list supplemented by Titania's ability to make an army of 5/3 Elemental tokens at a fairly decent pace once the deck gets rolling. Natural Affinity in response to a board wipe that will put creatures in the graveyard is a hilarious blowout in your favor. Natural Balance + Splendid Reclamation is pretty dirty as well. Squirrel Wrangler + Titania lets you build up a token army very quickly, giving you two 1/1 Squirrels and one 5/3 Elemental with every activation. Kamahl, Fist of Krosa/Quirion Druid let you use Ugin, the Spirit Dragon's +1 to Lightning Bolt lands during each of your turns. Just ways to sacrifice lands and recur them to take advantage of Titania's abilities.
Mystic Confluence is probably my favorite counterspell in the format. I think I'm happier to see it than Cryptic Command now that I've had the opportunity to play with it a lot. It does cost 5 instead of 4, but being easier to manage UU instead of UUU is a fair trade off IMO. Much like Cryptic, Mystic should very rarely be an actual dead card like a typical counterspell.
When in doubt, hate it out. Some sort of Hatebear-style deck that just packs a lot of hate to common strategies (ETB abuse/value, graveyard-based strategies, tutoring, drawing a bunch of cards, etc.) and a generous amount of removal
In the realm of "competitive" Commander, I will wholly admit up front that Bruna is actually probably pretty weak compared to other Commanders in her colors and of the Voltron variety. But I love her nonetheless and will try my hardest to make her the best I can
There are numerous different Bruna builds out there, and trust me when I say that I've tried pretty much all of them. But a traditional and straightforward Voltron Control style deck is the one that I prefer the most and find to be the most consistent. If you have an explosive start, you can just ramp out Bruna and start killing off players early. But the deck also has the option of just hanging back, holding out, setting up, and using Bruna as a late game finisher. Of course, the deck is far from perfect. An unexpected and resolved [[Rest in Peace]] or [[Leyline of the Void]] is virtually an auto-lose for the deck while [[Stranglehold]] is a huge nuisance for shutting off Time Warps and all my fetchlands and Stax-types decks are brutal since the deck doesn't run many creatures. Multiplayer is also unpredictable depending on who you end up playing with, but that's just life. You can't realistically always be able to handle an entire pod of players at all times after all.
The first thing you may notice is the fact that there are only 10 Auras in the deck. In all honestly, there are really only a small handful of Auras Bruna needs to become lethal. And concentrating your deck with too many will leave you with some pretty bad hands filled with useless cards. I originally had about 17 in my early builds, but I have since cut down in favor of just more cards that can tutor them up or just filter and dig through my deck to help find them or aforementioned tutors. Battle Mastery with Corrupted Conscience or Eldrazi Conscription is the "go to" lethal combo. Ethereal Armor and Sage's Reverie make Bruna huge as well. Steel of the Godhead and Unquestioned Authority give her evasion in the face of reachers or other flyers in her way. Vanishing and Gift of Immortality help keep her safe and make her difficult to keep off the board. Treachery is my tech Aura because getting to untap five lands when it comes in off of Bruna's trigger feels good every single time. And of course, effectively stealing any creature of your choice for "free" is awesome.
One of the other problems I had with the deck was figuring out exactly how much ramp to run. I read an article somewhere online saying an average deck should have between 6 and 12 means of ramping, so I just kind of met in the middle of that suggest range. So far, I like the ratio. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is my "ramp" tech because being able to cast Bruna for only 1WWU with him on board is amazing.
Tutors are pretty straightforward. Intuition is busted in this deck and is probably the best tutor in here. Tezzeret is a versatile meatshield. He can get me a Sensei's Divining Top if I need to set up draws, a mana rock to ramp a little, or finding some Greaves or Boots.
The card draw, dig, and selection options is the only section that I'm still not 100% sure about. Epiphany at the Drownyard is phenomenal. Read the Runes is also fantastic when you suit up Bruna to kill a player and then cast this to draw a bunch of cards, sacrifice the Auras on her, and then get them right back when you swing or block. Being able to reuse Unquestioned Authority, Sage's Reverie, and Treachery triggers with this is wonderful. Have the three big X draw spells (Blue Sun's Zenith, Sphinx's Revelation, Stroke of Genius) because I find myself with lots of open mana frequently, so might as well draw a bunch of cards to make efficient use of my mana and time. Dig Through Time is very easy to set up for delving, especially since I decided include all the fetchlands allowed in the deck. Deep Analysis is really the only questionable card I'm not sure of yet in this section.
For counterspells, I used to favor cheap and "free" ones. But now I've decided to opt for ones that can do other things to help minimize dead draws. Mystic Confluence is amazing, and I almost want to say that I like it more than Cryptic Command. In a serious pinch, I can use Arcane Denial to counter my own spell (usually an Aura I don't care about) to draw three cards during the next upkeep. Transmute on Muddle the Mixture is very handy when I don't need it to counter anything. Thwart is a great late game counter when you have enough mana that you won't really be missing losing three Islands. Pact of Negation can be tutored up with Tolaria West and just flat out says "NO" without any additional cost except being taxed 3UU your next turn.
Removal is pretty straightfoward. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is something I decided to tech since pumping out three Soldier tokens with her +1 can somewhat help against Stax as a means of trying to avoid having to sacrifice Bruna. Terminus has saved my butt numerous times, especially with an increase of Omnath, Locus of Rage and indestructible things at my store. The unearth on Kederekt Leviathan is quite handy. Either I can get two uses out of him or just not hesitate to pitch him to the graveyard for use later.
For the time magic, I purposely picked ones that can't be easily and readily abused by opponents. Vigilance on Bruna makes her not care about skipping an untap step with Savor the Moment. Temporal Trespass is very easy to set up for only UUU thanks to delve.
Twincast is just super useful and versatile. Most of the time, I'll use it to copy my own time magic to help set Bruna up for easy kills or against opposing countermagic directed at Bruna by copying it and using the copy to counter the original. But having the option to copy other spells like Demonic Tutor, Harmonize, Kodama's Reach, Call to Mind, etc. is also really sweet.
Lands are very straightforward. Running all the fetches I'm allowed to, Myriad Landscape for ramp, Hall of the Bandit Lord and Winding Canyons to give Bruna haste/flash her in end of turn, Tolaria West to find Pact of Negation or the aforementioned Hall or Canyons, and Strip Mine because things like Maze of Ith and Kor Haven are annoying against Voltron Commanders. With the exception of Celestial Colonnade, I've decided to run only dual lands that either come in untapped or who have conditions I can easily meet to come in untapped. And then a complete set of ZEN and BFZ full art Islands and Plains for my basics.
Not sure if it's been brought up or discussed previously, but what about having a sideboard to just transform the deck into a Breach build for post-board games? Avoiding graveyard hate and hosers seems like a more sound plan than trying to fight it in theory IMO.
Is Spirit Guide a necessity for the deck would you guys say? I proxied up the deck this weekend and did some testing and didn't like them too much personally.
I felt like I wanted more digging for combo pieces. Currently have: 4 Serum Visions, 3 Taigam's Scheming, 3 Izzet Charm and added 4 Sleight of Hand, 3 Gitaxian Probe, and 1 Summoner's Pact.
I think 10 or so is fairly reasonable. But I think it's more important to have ways to get them when you need them than the actual number of them IMO. You don't really want to be clogged with them and have them just sitting dead in your hand or being dead draws.
For Bant, I think Mystic Snake and Venser, Shaper Savant are are you really need because of how easy to are to search, recur, and blink.
I usually only run the "free" counters (Pact and Force) and nothing more than 2 CMC. Exceptions for Cryptic and Voidslime for versatility, and Plasm Capture for usually being a huge ROI if it resolves.
If you're afraid of getting hated out just from running Skittles, you can just run Drana 1.0 instead. She can kill almost as easily as Skittles and has utility of being removal.
I don't mind foreign cards. However, I do feel it's the owner's responsibility to know exactly what the cards say and do. If any discrepancies arise, we have smartphones in this day and age, so it's very easy to just look up cards. Even without cellular data or Wi-Fi, there are apps that have the card databases you can access offline.
My first deliberate attempt at making a "mean" EDH deck. Also probably one of, if not, the most linear deck I currently have. Ramp with a bunch of mana rocks, drop Bruna, Light of Alabaster with proper protection ASAP, and then use MLD and other removal to help you close out the game and secure a win.
Reassembling Skeleton + High Market: Very easy and reusable way to keep on flipping Lili. Also gives you a reusable source of fodder for Grave Pact and Dictate shenanigans.
Hatred: A high risk, high reward card with Lili, but it's hilarious.
Lashwrithe and Nightmare Lash: Far less risky methods of making Commander Damage a feasible and potential alternate win condition for the deck.
I think it's a pretty standard monogreen stompy list supplemented by Titania's ability to make an army of 5/3 Elemental tokens at a fairly decent pace once the deck gets rolling. Natural Affinity in response to a board wipe that will put creatures in the graveyard is a hilarious blowout in your favor. Natural Balance + Splendid Reclamation is pretty dirty as well. Squirrel Wrangler + Titania lets you build up a token army very quickly, giving you two 1/1 Squirrels and one 5/3 Elemental with every activation. Kamahl, Fist of Krosa/Quirion Druid let you use Ugin, the Spirit Dragon's +1 to Lightning Bolt lands during each of your turns. Just ways to sacrifice lands and recur them to take advantage of Titania's abilities.
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
RAMP (11)
1 Sol Ring
1 Mind Stone
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Recross the Paths
1 Unstable Obelisk
1 Wood Elves
1 Hedron Archive
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Verdant Confluence
MANA DOUBLERS (2)
1 Caged Sun
1 Zendikar Resurgent
TUTORS (8)
1 Crop Rotation
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Chord of Calling
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Birthing Pod
1 Primal Command
1 Ulvenwald Hydra
CARD DRAW & ADVANTAGE (9)
1 Sylvan Library
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Lifeblood Hydra
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Garruk's Packleader
1 Regal Force
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1 Life from the Loam
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Eternal Witness
1 Skullwinder
1 Splendid Reclamation
1 Genesis
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Artisan of Kozilek
SPOT REMOVAL (6)
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Beast Within
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Duplicant
1 World Breaker
1 Terastodon
BOARD WIPES (3)
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
LAND ANIMATION (4)
1 Natural Affinity
1 Quirion Druid
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
LAND SAC OUTLETS (5)
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Village Elder
1 Constant Mists
1 Natural Balance
1 Squirrel Wrangler
MISCELLANEOUS (3)
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
1 Bant Panorama
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Command Beacon
1 Drownyard Temple
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Dust Bowl
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Homeward Path
1 Jund Panorama
1 Mirrorpool
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Naya Panorama
1 Petrified Field
1 Rath's Edge
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
BASIC LANDS (20)
22 Forest
There are numerous different Bruna builds out there, and trust me when I say that I've tried pretty much all of them. But a traditional and straightforward Voltron Control style deck is the one that I prefer the most and find to be the most consistent. If you have an explosive start, you can just ramp out Bruna and start killing off players early. But the deck also has the option of just hanging back, holding out, setting up, and using Bruna as a late game finisher. Of course, the deck is far from perfect. An unexpected and resolved [[Rest in Peace]] or [[Leyline of the Void]] is virtually an auto-lose for the deck while [[Stranglehold]] is a huge nuisance for shutting off Time Warps and all my fetchlands and Stax-types decks are brutal since the deck doesn't run many creatures. Multiplayer is also unpredictable depending on who you end up playing with, but that's just life. You can't realistically always be able to handle an entire pod of players at all times after all.
6 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
AURAS (10)
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Vanishing
3 Battle Mastery
3 Gift of Immortality
3 Steel of the Godhead
3 Unquestioned Authority
4 Sage's Reverie
5 Corrupted Conscience
5 Treachery
8 Eldrazi Conscription
RAMP AND ACCELERATION (9)
1 Sol Ring
2 Azorius Signet
2 Mind Stone
2 Talisman of Progress
3 Burnished Hart
3 Commander's Sphere
4 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
4 Kor Cartographer
4 Solemn Simulacrum
TUTORS (5)
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Intuition
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
5 Three Dreams
6 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
CARD DRAW, DIG AND SELECTION (10)
1 Brainstorm
1 Epiphany at the Drownyard
1 Read the Runes
1 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Blue Sun's Zenith
3 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Stroke of Genius
4 Deep Analysis
4 Fact or Fiction
8 Dig Through Time
0 Pact of Negation
2 Arcane Denial
2 Muddle the Mixture
4 Cryptic Command
4 Thwart
5 Mystic Confluence
SPOT REMOVAL (4)
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
3 Capsize
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
WRATHS (7)
2 Cyclonic Rift
5 Evacuation
5 Rout
6 Austere Command
6 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
6 Terminus
8 Kederekt Leviathan
RECURSION (2)
2 Snapcaster Mage
6 Sun Titan
HASTE AND FLASH ENABLERS (3)
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Swiftfoot Boots
5 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
TIME WARPS (4)
3 Savor the Moment
6 Part the Waterveil
7 Temporal Mastery
11 Temporal Trespass
UTILITY (1)
2 Twincast
UTILITY LANDS (13)
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Arid Mesa
0 Flooded Strand
0 Hall of the Bandit Lord
0 Marsh Flats
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Myriad Landscape
0 Polluted Delta
0 Scalding Tarn
0 Strip Mine
0 Tolaria West
0 Winding Canyons
0 Windswept Heath
0 Adarkar Wastes
0 Celestial Colonnade
0 Command Tower
0 Glacial Fortress
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Mystic Gate
0 Nimbus Maze
0 Prairie Stream
0 Tundra
BASIC LANDS (16)
0 Island x8
0 Plains x8
The first thing you may notice is the fact that there are only 10 Auras in the deck. In all honestly, there are really only a small handful of Auras Bruna needs to become lethal. And concentrating your deck with too many will leave you with some pretty bad hands filled with useless cards. I originally had about 17 in my early builds, but I have since cut down in favor of just more cards that can tutor them up or just filter and dig through my deck to help find them or aforementioned tutors. Battle Mastery with Corrupted Conscience or Eldrazi Conscription is the "go to" lethal combo. Ethereal Armor and Sage's Reverie make Bruna huge as well. Steel of the Godhead and Unquestioned Authority give her evasion in the face of reachers or other flyers in her way. Vanishing and Gift of Immortality help keep her safe and make her difficult to keep off the board. Treachery is my tech Aura because getting to untap five lands when it comes in off of Bruna's trigger feels good every single time. And of course, effectively stealing any creature of your choice for "free" is awesome.
One of the other problems I had with the deck was figuring out exactly how much ramp to run. I read an article somewhere online saying an average deck should have between 6 and 12 means of ramping, so I just kind of met in the middle of that suggest range. So far, I like the ratio. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is my "ramp" tech because being able to cast Bruna for only 1WWU with him on board is amazing.
Tutors are pretty straightforward. Intuition is busted in this deck and is probably the best tutor in here. Tezzeret is a versatile meatshield. He can get me a Sensei's Divining Top if I need to set up draws, a mana rock to ramp a little, or finding some Greaves or Boots.
The card draw, dig, and selection options is the only section that I'm still not 100% sure about. Epiphany at the Drownyard is phenomenal. Read the Runes is also fantastic when you suit up Bruna to kill a player and then cast this to draw a bunch of cards, sacrifice the Auras on her, and then get them right back when you swing or block. Being able to reuse Unquestioned Authority, Sage's Reverie, and Treachery triggers with this is wonderful. Have the three big X draw spells (Blue Sun's Zenith, Sphinx's Revelation, Stroke of Genius) because I find myself with lots of open mana frequently, so might as well draw a bunch of cards to make efficient use of my mana and time. Dig Through Time is very easy to set up for delving, especially since I decided include all the fetchlands allowed in the deck. Deep Analysis is really the only questionable card I'm not sure of yet in this section.
For counterspells, I used to favor cheap and "free" ones. But now I've decided to opt for ones that can do other things to help minimize dead draws. Mystic Confluence is amazing, and I almost want to say that I like it more than Cryptic Command. In a serious pinch, I can use Arcane Denial to counter my own spell (usually an Aura I don't care about) to draw three cards during the next upkeep. Transmute on Muddle the Mixture is very handy when I don't need it to counter anything. Thwart is a great late game counter when you have enough mana that you won't really be missing losing three Islands. Pact of Negation can be tutored up with Tolaria West and just flat out says "NO" without any additional cost except being taxed 3UU your next turn.
Removal is pretty straightfoward. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is something I decided to tech since pumping out three Soldier tokens with her +1 can somewhat help against Stax as a means of trying to avoid having to sacrifice Bruna. Terminus has saved my butt numerous times, especially with an increase of Omnath, Locus of Rage and indestructible things at my store. The unearth on Kederekt Leviathan is quite handy. Either I can get two uses out of him or just not hesitate to pitch him to the graveyard for use later.
For the time magic, I purposely picked ones that can't be easily and readily abused by opponents. Vigilance on Bruna makes her not care about skipping an untap step with Savor the Moment. Temporal Trespass is very easy to set up for only UUU thanks to delve.
Twincast is just super useful and versatile. Most of the time, I'll use it to copy my own time magic to help set Bruna up for easy kills or against opposing countermagic directed at Bruna by copying it and using the copy to counter the original. But having the option to copy other spells like Demonic Tutor, Harmonize, Kodama's Reach, Call to Mind, etc. is also really sweet.
Lands are very straightforward. Running all the fetches I'm allowed to, Myriad Landscape for ramp, Hall of the Bandit Lord and Winding Canyons to give Bruna haste/flash her in end of turn, Tolaria West to find Pact of Negation or the aforementioned Hall or Canyons, and Strip Mine because things like Maze of Ith and Kor Haven are annoying against Voltron Commanders. With the exception of Celestial Colonnade, I've decided to run only dual lands that either come in untapped or who have conditions I can easily meet to come in untapped. And then a complete set of ZEN and BFZ full art Islands and Plains for my basics.
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Echoing Truth
1 Pyroclasm
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Pact of Negation
1 Rakdos Charm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Lightning Axe
I felt like I wanted more digging for combo pieces. Currently have: 4 Serum Visions, 3 Taigam's Scheming, 3 Izzet Charm and added 4 Sleight of Hand, 3 Gitaxian Probe, and 1 Summoner's Pact.
For Bant, I think Mystic Snake and Venser, Shaper Savant are are you really need because of how easy to are to search, recur, and blink.
I usually only run the "free" counters (Pact and Force) and nothing more than 2 CMC. Exceptions for Cryptic and Voidslime for versatility, and Plasm Capture for usually being a huge ROI if it resolves.
Pitch it to Volrath for a huge pump.
1 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Creatures (5)
1 Fathom Seer
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sun Titan
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Instants (22)
1 Arcane Denial
1 Brainstorm
1 Capsize
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Delay
1 Dig Through Time
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Evacuation
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gush
1 Impulse
1 Intuition
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Negate
1 Pact of Negation
1 Path to Exile
1 Sunder
1 Swan Song
1 Swords to Plowshares
Sorceries (11)
1 Armageddon
1 Austere Command
1 Cataclysm
1 Catastrophe
1 Plea for Power
1 Rout
1 Savor the Moment
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Temporal Trespass
1 Terminus
1 Three Dreams
1 Azorius Cluestone
1 Azorius Signet
1 Coalition Relic
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mind Stone
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Swiftfoot Boots
Enchantments (13)
1 Alexi's Cloak
1 Battle Mastery
1 Corrupted Conscience
1 Diplomatic Immunity
1 Eel Umbra
1 Eldrazi Conscription
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Parallax Tide
1 Sage's Reverie
1 Steel of the God Head
1 Unquestioned Authority
1 Vanishing
Nonbasic Lands (21)
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Command Tower
1 Dust Bowl
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Kor Haven
1 Mystic Gate
1 New Benalia
1 Prairie Stream
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Strip Mine
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tolaria West
1 Winding Canyons
8 Island
8 Plains
Aquireboard
1 Force of Will
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Tundra
Hatred: A high risk, high reward card with Lili, but it's hilarious.
Lashwrithe and Nightmare Lash: Far less risky methods of making Commander Damage a feasible and potential alternate win condition for the deck.