The first deck (and precon) I ever had was called phantom premonition and was led by Ranar, the Ever-Watchful. The precon had some issues, as was usually the case in early precons, which caused me to keep losing to the Wyleth, Soul of Steel deck my friend bought at the same time. Eventually I switched the commander to Brago, King Eternal which gave me more opportunities to win. Although the deck was far from perfect.

Currently the deck has changed almost completely from what it once was. In this Deck Tech I will go over these changes and explain what the deck looks like now. It is nice to reflect on my first ever deck and remember my first mtg games by writing this post.

In essence, the deck has now become an artifact deck whose main goal is to cast all different splicers as fast as possible. These are cards that make 3/3 golems when they enter while also buffing them in one way, e.g giving them flying. Although they are only 1/1’s they will grow my board state enormously, since each time they are blinked they bring more bodies out. This is not the most powerful blink strategy but it is incredibly fun and I feel the deck holds its own as is.

The ramp package is mainly focused to cast the commander on turn 3, since we want to attack with him as soon as possible. I quickly realized that artifact ramp is not only thematic but if we attack and trigger the commander we can also reuse mana rocks by blinking them. So Arcane Signet and Talisman of Progress are great to include. In the higher end we can include Peregrine Drake to make an enormous amount of mana. It is not unusual to have 15 mana in the turn you cast the Drake.

The card draw category is quite straightforward, find permanents that draw a card when they enter. I included  Cryogen Relic, Ichor Wellspring and Thought Monitor since they fit the artifact theme.

Removal in blink can be brutal. Bouncing people’s lands is doable and can wreck a player. I have decided I do not play land destruction but I have included Riptide Gearhulk which is an enormously powerful card in this Deck (and an artifact). For 5 mana it almost feels as if you can exile 3 non land permanents. Avatars Wrath is a good board wipe which feels made for Brago. You keep your commander to blink your freshly recast creatures and this makes it so it feels like you haven’t lost anything at all. Another quick mention is witch enchanter, but that card is good even without the possibility of blinking it.

Since Brago is vital for our strategy we need a way to protect him and to keep attacking. Flying helps greatly but it is not always enough to keep doing combat damage the whole game. Lightning greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are haste enablers and protection while Unquestioned Authority gives him protection from creatures and draws you a card each time it enters. Aqueous Form is also a fun card for just one mana where the scry ability is a nice bonus.

With the few card slots that are left we can include the ETB doublers like  like Starfield Vocalist and Panharmonicon. With these cards you will feel like a machine that will never stop. Starfield Vocalist is especially useful since you can warp it in relatively cheap for one game changing turn. Your opponents won’t know what hit them.

Deck Downsides

The main downside of the deck is its reliance on Brago. If Brago can’t attack or has been removed once or twice your deck feels clunky. That is why I have included some cards that can replace Brago in a pinch. Airbenders Ascension and Soulherder will blink one creature on your end step while Ephemerate can function as protection or a repeated ETB trigger. As a side note, the art of Soulherder deserves a price, the card looks so cool.

Recent removals and future adds

Although redundancy is necessary, I realized I had too much. Therefore I put Talisman of Progress in and removed Flickerwisp, a card I don’t seem to cast in my games. The card I am thinking about including is monk Gyatso, which seems a perfect payoff and protection card in the deck. Deciding on what to replace it with gets harder and harder unfortunately.

Let me know If I missed any cards which you feel will work with this Deck. You can find the complete decklist here. I will see you in the next post!