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$0.00Ready for the next level? Upgrading your Eldraine Brawl precons to Commander decks, part two!
Last week, we had a look at how you can take two of your brand new Throne of Eldraine Brawl decks and upgrade them into fully fledged Commander decks - specifically, we covered Wild Bounty and Knights' Charge. If you missed that article, you can find it here!
Seven days later, we're back with more - this time, we'll give you the info you need to upgrade Savage Hunter and Faerie Schemes! We'll also be providing little rundowns on some of the deck's best additions.
The guidelines
For these upgrades, we're working with a small set of rules.
- The cost of the upgrades has to be about $30 USD or less (based on TCGplayer pricing at the time of writing).
- No more than six cards can be cut from each deck.
- Basic lands are free.
While some of these commanders could be converted into cEDH-ready powerhouses, those upgrades would cost thousands of dollars and would leave your deck nothing like how it started. With these upgrades, you will be playing a deck that feels like a bigger, better version of what you started with, without breaking the bank!
Savage Hunter
Deck list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/savage-hunter-but-commander/
Commander: Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Goal of the deck: Make a bunch of disposable bodies, turn them into card advantage, then either swing with Korvold for lethal or drain your opponents with aristocrat effects!
In this deck, Korvold can take you to an amazing world of card advantage... if you've got the means to pay! Whenever you sacrifice a permanent, if you've got Korvold on the field, you'll draw a card and add a counter to him. But to sacrifice a permanent, you'll need, well, permanents! If you're in a pinch and want to dig through your deck, the last thing you want to start sacrificing is your crucial permanents - for example, you can sacrifice lands to draw yourself cards, but then how do you pay for your spells? Fortunately, the deck is stocked to the brim with token generators. A classic Commander staple for any decks that can run a copy is Dragonlair Spider, which makes you an Insect token whenever one of your opponents casts a spell! Assuming it doesn't get killed on sight (word for the wise: don't let it stick around), your arachnid friend should be making you plenty of fodder to turn into card draw!
Once you've got your mass of tiny tokens, where do you go from there? Korvold only forces you to sacrifice a permanent when he enters the battlefield or attacks, which isn't a particularly amazing rate - sure, an extra card a turn is nice (just look at how many people play Phyrexian Arena), but it's not a truly impressive rate. In order to convert your army of useless critters into sweet, sweet cards, you'll need sacrifice outlets... like Viscera Seer! This lovely little bog wizard should be your go-to for your ritual needs, as the scry provided will allow you to filter through your deck to find the cards you need when you need them (be warned - due to how the ability goes on the stack, you'll actually draw before you scry, but that scry will allow you to set up for your next draw so it all works in the end)!
It's all well and good to turn your legion of tokens into card draw, but is there more you can do with them? With a card like Butcher of Malakir, you'll be able to keep your opponents in check by forcing them to sacrifice their creatures. While this may not do much to fellow token decks, it'll wreak havoc to anyone playing a Voltron deck or other decks that tend to only have a few creatures in play at a time. Clearing your opponents' boards while building your card advantage will keep you in the lead and have your opponents perpetually playing catch-up!
So you've made a massive army of bugs, you've turned those bugs into cards, and you've controlled the forces of your opponents in the process... but how do you win? You've now come to the final piece of the puzzle - aristocrat-style effects. Zulaport Cutthroat is a perfect example of this type of ability, and also the most potent version of it for multiplayer. For only two mana, you'll be draining each of your opponents every time one of your creatures dies. While it's only one life at a time, once you've assembled your giant legion of disposable creatures, you'll be able to suck every last point of life from your enemies, netting you that sweet, sweet victory!
Faerie Schemes
Deck list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/faerie-schemes-but-commander/
Commander: Alela, Artful Provocateur
Goal of the deck: Make an army of flying tokens by playing artifacts and enchantments, pump them up, then swing for lethal with hard to block creatures!
In an Alela deck, your goal is to cast as many artifacts and enchantments as possible to make a bunch of small flying creatures. Getting incidental value from playing otherwise good cards is great, but you'll need to find a way to make those flying 1/1s (2/1s if you've still got Alela in play) into threats. This is where cards like Gravitational Shift come in. Once you tack a couple of extra points of power into your army, you'll be able to swing for lethal without breaking a sweat. If you end up leaving an opponent alive, you'll most likely also be weakening their crack-back, as most creatures don't have flying and will lose power while yours grow! Gravitational Shift isn't the only card in the deck that'll buff your team (another great example is Intangible Virtue, which gives your tokens +1/+1 and vigilance, meaning you'll be able to swing and still block any threats), but it's the most powerful example of this effect in the deck.
Throughout these articles, I've been pushing a message through all of my descriptions and picks - card advantage is very, very important! One of the best tools for gaining that advantage is Bident of Thassa. While the trusty trident won't draw you a card on its own, it lets you draw cards when you hit your opponents with your creatures (which you'll be doing anyway)! It's also an artifact and an enchantment, so you'll make a Faerie when you cast it - assuming you have your commander on the field, that is.
At first glance, Archetype of Imagination looks like a card that wouldn't offer an Alela deck much. Sure, it's an enchantment, so it'll make you a Faerie token, but it's also six mana - would you pay six mana for a 1/1 flyer? Beyond that, the majority of the creatures you have on the field will already have flying, so there's very little value there. Where this card shines is its ability to strip your opponents of flying - suddenly, nobody can block your swings (unless they're playing creatures with reach, of course). This means that you'll be able to have your damage land with every attack without having to worry about your tiny creatures being blocked and killed by whatever your opponents have!
While your deck is dedicated to filling the board, there's a good chance you'll find times in a game where you want to be able to clear the field of whatever creatures your opponents have out. Unfortunately, most cards that can stop your opponents in their tracks will also wipe your forces too - for example, the deck already runs Kaya's Wrath and Massacre Girl, which will kill everyone's creatures equally. In a deck dedicated to amassing the biggest board state, this simply won't do. This is why we include Doomwake Giant, which gives all your opponents' creatures -1/-1 whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control. In a deck with 23 enchantments, you best believe you'll have a fair few Constellation triggers occur, allowing you to kneecap the opposing forces without losing your powerful board!
And that concludes our Brawl deck upgrade breakdown! If you're interesting in picking up one of the base decks to convert into a Commander deck, or even to just play Brawl, you'll unfortunately have to be a little more patient than expected - due to an unexpected level of demand for these products, preorders have been put on hold for the time being. If you're keen on getting these decks for yourself, you'll either have to order/come into Vault Games on launch day to pick one up, or you'll be waiting until they're restocked in January of next year.