Smack dab in the middle between Sigarda and Gisela, Bruna is not what I would call aggressively costed nor is she that expensive. Though, 6cc for a 5/5 with evasion and one of the most powerful abilities I've seen in a while, she is more than a bargain.
So lets get into what her 99 is composed of. Her ramp package is quite similar to Gisela's, give or take a couple of cards. The graveyard hate section is identical to Sigarda's and of course the ubiquitous staples were included.
What about the cards that are unique to her list, you ask? Well first up were the buffs (Auras) that Bruna would be relying on to establish some kind of board presence. I wanted each of the buffs to serve at least one of three functions: pump by at least +2/+2, grant evasion, and/or grant protection as those are the three most important things I figured Bruna and the rest of my creatures would need.
The buffs that were added are as follows:
The buffs that were added are as follows:
Going by the seven by nine rule which you can read about here. I tried to include at least seven cards that served each function. Some of these buffs served more than one function, Drake Umbra for example, pumps, grants evasion, and grants protection all in one; and on the opposite end there is Battle Mastery which serves none of the functions yet I liked it enough to include it.
Also, I realize that in my initial post reviewing Bruna I advocated the usefulness of Crab Umbra yet you will notice its absence in the above list. To clear up any confusion I was really advocating the usefulness of the Umbra card's Totem Armor ability and not specifically Crab Umbra itself. Don't get me wrong, because I'd include every single W/U Umbra if I had room. Sadly the deck needed room for some other essential cards so some Umbras needed to be cut.
Next up is our tutoring section, as consistency is key to a solid game plan. As our deck runs on our enchantments we'll need plenty of ways to get the enchantments we need when we need them. So our tutoring section consists of:
Academy Rector
Auratouched Mage
Sovereigns of Lost Alara
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Enlightened Tutor
Intuition
Mystical Tutor
Idyllic Tutor
Three Dreams
Intuition is great in this deck since Bruna doesn't care if our enchantments are in the graveyard or not and Mystical Tutor doesn't tutor for enchantments but can become any of our other tutoring spells; at instant speed no less!
Last but not least we'll need some good creatures to target with our enchantments and similar to our Sigarda list, this would include creatures with combat damage abilities, evasion, or protection built in. Some of these creatures included:
Beloved Chaplain
Cephalid Constable
Commander Eesha
Kor Spiritdancer
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Rootwater Thief
Rootwater Thief is good for disrupting any combo players at the table and if you can pump up Cephalid Constable and manage to get a Battle Mastery on him then more power to you!
At this point we'll add some standard recursion, some card draw, a little removal/board control, and some good stuff and we're done. Our finished list looks something like this:
Commander:
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Artifact: 6
Armillary Sphere
Azorius Signet
Coalition Relic
Expedition Map
Sol Ring
Tormod's Crypt
Creature: 21
Academy Rector
Auratouched Mage
Beloved Chaplain
Cephalid Constable
Commander Eesha
Consecrated Sphinx
Duplicant
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Jace's Archivist
Kor Spiritdancer
Mesa Enchantress
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Reveillark
Rootwater Thief
Solemn Simulacrum
Sovereigns of Lost Alara
Stonecloaker
Sun Titan
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Umbra Mystic
Weathered Wayfarer
Enchantment: 24
Angelic Destiny
Armored Ascension
Auramancer's Guise
Battle Mastery
Celestial Mantle
Diplomatic Immunity
Drake Umbra
Eel Umbra
Eldrazi Conscription
Enchanted Evening
Faith's Fetters
Fool's Demise
Indestructibility
Infiltrator's Magemark
Karmic Justice
Land Tax
Mammoth Umbra
Prison Term
Rhystic Study
Spirit Mantle
Steel of the Godhead
Take Possession
Treachery
Unquestioned Authority
Instant: 6
Enlightened Tutor
Intuition
Mystical Tutor
Return to Dust
Swords to Plowshares
Tithe
Sorcery: 5
Austere Command
Idyllic Tutor
Replenish
Three Dreams
Winds of Rath
+37 Lands
In our mana base we have Serra's Sanctum to help ramp mana and Minamo, School at Water's Edge to help abuse the Sanctum (Especially with an Enchanted Evening in play). There is a combo with Enchanted Evening and Cleansing Meditation but I decided not to be dirty.... yet.
I not sure but I may have let the theme dilute the power as I excluded a lot of good stuff (Phyrexian Metamorph and friends) for more thematic cards. There is actually an article that a friend of mine did covering the issue of theme vs power and you can read about it here. Of course, as with any deck, play-testing will reveal what cards can or should be taken out and allow for some fine-tuning.
Also, speaking of fine-tuning, I'm not sure how it happened but Sensei's Divining Top is not on the list. This needs to be rectified of course but as it stands I'm not sure what to cut.
This concludes our look at AVR's three angel legends, if you have any suggestions or secret tech be sure to share!
Thank you for reading, I'll see you next time.
Also, I realize that in my initial post reviewing Bruna I advocated the usefulness of Crab Umbra yet you will notice its absence in the above list. To clear up any confusion I was really advocating the usefulness of the Umbra card's Totem Armor ability and not specifically Crab Umbra itself. Don't get me wrong, because I'd include every single W/U Umbra if I had room. Sadly the deck needed room for some other essential cards so some Umbras needed to be cut.
Next up is our tutoring section, as consistency is key to a solid game plan. As our deck runs on our enchantments we'll need plenty of ways to get the enchantments we need when we need them. So our tutoring section consists of:
Academy Rector
Auratouched Mage
Sovereigns of Lost Alara
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Enlightened Tutor
Intuition
Mystical Tutor
Idyllic Tutor
Three Dreams
Intuition is great in this deck since Bruna doesn't care if our enchantments are in the graveyard or not and Mystical Tutor doesn't tutor for enchantments but can become any of our other tutoring spells; at instant speed no less!
Last but not least we'll need some good creatures to target with our enchantments and similar to our Sigarda list, this would include creatures with combat damage abilities, evasion, or protection built in. Some of these creatures included:
Beloved Chaplain
Cephalid Constable
Commander Eesha
Kor Spiritdancer
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Rootwater Thief
Rootwater Thief is good for disrupting any combo players at the table and if you can pump up Cephalid Constable and manage to get a Battle Mastery on him then more power to you!
At this point we'll add some standard recursion, some card draw, a little removal/board control, and some good stuff and we're done. Our finished list looks something like this:
Commander:
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Artifact: 6Armillary Sphere
Azorius Signet
Coalition Relic
Expedition Map
Sol Ring
Tormod's Crypt
Creature: 21
Academy Rector
Auratouched Mage
Beloved Chaplain
Cephalid Constable
Commander Eesha
Consecrated Sphinx
Duplicant
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Jace's Archivist
Kor SpiritdancerMesa Enchantress
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Reveillark
Rootwater Thief
Solemn Simulacrum
Sovereigns of Lost Alara
Stonecloaker
Sun Titan
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Umbra Mystic
Weathered Wayfarer
Enchantment: 24
Angelic Destiny
Armored Ascension
Auramancer's Guise
Battle Mastery
Celestial MantleDiplomatic Immunity
Drake Umbra
Eel Umbra
Eldrazi Conscription
Enchanted Evening
Faith's Fetters
Fool's Demise
Indestructibility
Infiltrator's Magemark
Karmic Justice
Land Tax
Mammoth Umbra
Prison Term
Rhystic Study
Spirit Mantle
Steel of the Godhead
Take Possession
Treachery
Unquestioned Authority
Instant: 6
Enlightened Tutor
Intuition
Mystical Tutor
Return to Dust
Swords to Plowshares
Tithe
Sorcery: 5
Austere Command
Idyllic Tutor
Replenish
Three Dreams
Winds of Rath
+37 Lands
In our mana base we have Serra's Sanctum to help ramp mana and Minamo, School at Water's Edge to help abuse the Sanctum (Especially with an Enchanted Evening in play). There is a combo with Enchanted Evening and Cleansing Meditation but I decided not to be dirty.... yet.
I not sure but I may have let the theme dilute the power as I excluded a lot of good stuff (Phyrexian Metamorph and friends) for more thematic cards. There is actually an article that a friend of mine did covering the issue of theme vs power and you can read about it here. Of course, as with any deck, play-testing will reveal what cards can or should be taken out and allow for some fine-tuning.
Also, speaking of fine-tuning, I'm not sure how it happened but Sensei's Divining Top is not on the list. This needs to be rectified of course but as it stands I'm not sure what to cut.
This concludes our look at AVR's three angel legends, if you have any suggestions or secret tech be sure to share!
Thank you for reading, I'll see you next time.
Drogskol Reaver seems like a potentially deadly beatstick here.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Evening/Meditation combo, I already took it out of my Jenara deck. I more or less pulled it off the first time I played the deck. Someone actually had the answer for EE in hand and blew it in response to the Meditation, so I mostly just screwed myself over, but everyone got the point that it'd have been game over for them had it worked.
Once they knew what I was up too, I knew they'd never let Enchanted Evening live again, so I figured it was good enough that I almost pulled it off (oh, and I still ended up winning that game even after I completely hosed my own board with the Cleansing Mediation - thanks to Creeping Renaissance!).
Anyway, Bruna is an awesome general, but I love my Rancors and Bear Umbras a little too much, so I'll have to just throw Bruna into the Jenara deck for a while, see how she does.
Drogskol does seem like a great card. Beats and card draw all in one. I'll definitely be giving him a run when I figure out which cards can be cut.
DeleteAs for combos like that its true that you can only ever hope to do it once since any sensible opponents won't let you stick with a combo piece ever again. xD
I was a little disappointed that I didn't have access to Bear Umbra and friends, Bruna is kinda like Thrax though, meaning she would probably pull a lot of weight on her own to make up for missing out on what green has to offer. Snake Umbra and Bear Umbra ftw though. =)