From the Brim to the Trim - Smashing Our Opponents' Faces With Budget Threats
(Brion Stoutarm | Art by Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai)
If It Looks Like A Hulk And Throws Like A Hulk...
Greetings and salutations, from my own cozy chair near set just above a nice woodfire. I'm Arnaud, and I'm thrilled to take you on yet another journey of budget brews, uncanny choices and massive head smashes.
Last time, I decided unilaterally and without consulting my army of lawyers that, being short only two votes from taking the win, Brion Stoutarm definitely deserved a chance. So this time, there will be no endless rambling about stats and percentages. Let's dive right in.
Ok, so maybe just a teensy-bitsy of rambling. Brion was among the first commander decks I attempted to build, back in 2012. It looked fun, and I was secretly hoping to cast big bad creatures, smash with them, then fling them into my opponent's faces. Ah, the unwavering optimism of the new brewer... Can we do better this time?
So. 4/4 with lifelink for 4 mana. Decent stats, but what we're most interested in is Brion's unique ability : sacrifice creatures to deal damage. That lifelink all of a sudden becomes much more relevant!
As it stands, Brion's page accounts for 286 cards. Given the general strategy chosen by most brewers, I'd be surprised if there was much expensive cardboard. Let's dive in!
First Trim - The Cardboard Chainsaw Massacre
First things first. I'll group and sort the cards by price, alternating between the various suppliers to squeeze the maximum value from the list, then mercilessly butcher anything above the $1 mark. As expected, many damage doublers fail to make the cut. A shame.
A few other nifty cards stand, at the time of writing, between the $1 and $2 mark. Before we take a look at the best options therein, I'd like to ask a question (which I'll repeat in the poll). Given the market fluctuations, do you reckon I should give some leeway to cards up to $1.10, in hopes they drop below our established mark, or do we keep a strict and severe guillotine? I'd be curious to hear from you on this possibility.
At any rate, let's see what goodies we almost got to play with.
- War Room: This is exactly what I'm hinting at. At $1.03, this is an absolute go-to in almost any Boros build.
- Illusionist's Bracers: One fling is good. Two is better.
- Dictate of the Twin Gods: Yes, it affects the damage you take as well. But it has flash, so you get to benefit from its effect first.
- Emeria Shepherd: Great recursion outlet. The mana cost is steep, but reanimating a fling choice cut over and over is bound to drag some attention.
- Cursed Mirror: At worst it's an expensive rock. At best it's a copy of the best creature on the field, to smash with then fling away.
- Hofri Ghostforge: Steal stuff, sac it, and make a copy. Talk about adding insult to injury...
- Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink: Who cares about the token dying this turn? You'll slaughter them yourself!
- Bonders' Enclave: Same as with War Room
- Brought Back: Fling, die, come back, rince, repeat.
- Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: And yet another damage doubler, with a protective upside.
- Virtue of Courage: This is what what annoys me the most. The ability on the enchantment end looks absolutely gross in conjunction with our commander.
- Detection Tower: An absolute must-have for any deck wishing to target a creature with boots.
That's a lot of good cards. But fear not, my good friends, there's plenty more to come. As it stands, we still have 173 cards to swim through. On we go!
Second Trim - Cardward Scissorhands
Kind Ladies and Gentlemen, we may have an issue: we are in Boros. I repeat: WE. ARE. IN. BOROS.
Can you feel the slight worry about keeping our hand full?
So, let's see what we have:
- Card Advantage: 14 (ouch)
- Ramp : 19
- Removal : 19
- Wipes : 5
Unlike the last few brews, looks like there won't be too much to cut here.
| Card Advantage | Ramp | Removal | Wipes |
The removal/wipe count might be a smidge higher than we're used to, but since the current curve definitely looms on the higher end, I'd rather be safe for the few turns we'll need to set things up.
The fun part is that, with the mana base reshaped, we still have 157 cards left to ponder, evaluate, weigh, consider, analyze, interpret, judge. That's a lot of toys!
Third Trim - Cutting off the rough edges
Let's settle down for a bit, shall we? What does the deck want to do? Fling big stuff? Sure. Send our opponents' creatures right back into their faces? Absolutely. And gain some life to stay alive? Definitely.
Still, this is a delicate equation to solve. We need enough threaten effects, possibly cheap, so we can steal our opponents' creatures right under their nose. And enough fling effects to make sure our commander does not become a liability.
I also want to keep some big creatures of my own to fling them around, should the targets on the other boards prove not to be juicy enough.
So first, let's get rid of the stuff that's not 100% relevant to our case. Not bad cards per se, but just not focused enough.
- Acrobatic Leap: I like the idea of being able to untap Brion. I like it less when it's a one shot.
- Ball Lightning: Makes me feel old. But triple red is too colorful a cost for my taste.
- Borderland Behemoth: Too expensive for what will usually end up being an 8/8 for 7 mana.
- Calamity Bearer: Looks nice on paper, but will only really benefit our commander, and as such feels slightly too situational.
- Dawn Charm: I love a good fog in off-fog colors, but we simply don't have the room.
- Grabby Giant: Here for the flavor I suppose.
- Hamletback Goliath: I pondered really hard on whether I should keep it in. The steep mana cost is a deterrent, but with this card, the sky is the limit.
- Karmic Guide: Reanimating a threat is nice, but that's not really the core strategy here.
- Nykthos Paragon and Cradle of Vitality: Too dependent on our commander to be truly efficient.
- Open the Armory: Not enough equipments in the deck to be worth it.
- Quakebringer: Really not what we're looking for here.
- Serra Avatar: Lovely when you have a lot of life, but the triple white is a no-go.
- Sigil of the New Dawn: Not sure we'll have enough creatures to justify the expensive effect.
- Sun Titan: Not entirely sure we have enough juicy targets for it to be worthwhile.
That's a good start. Down to 142 cards at the moment. And now to address the elephant in the room.
As I said, that's a delicate balance to solve. At the moment, there are still 35 theft spells left in the list. Honestly, what we cut here doesn't really matter. We'll just focus on getting rid of the most expensive stuff and keep some of the most decent ones. I think we need something around 15. Remember, you don't want to steal everything, only the very best.
Right. 120 cards. And we still need to shorten things down to 110, before trimming yet again. Remind me, why do I inflict this upon myself?
So, what's does our curve look like at this time on Archidekt?
Ouch. That's steep. I believe there can be some cuts that can be done in the 6-7 mana section. Off with:
- Bloodshot Cyclops: I like the idea of another Brion, but 6 mana...
- Cleansing Nova: I don't want to cut a wipe, but I want to trim the curve. Graaaah!
- Combustible Gearhulk: I love the card, but I feel like it will probably do the one thing you don't want to when you cast it.
- Evra, Halcyon Witness: 6 mana to cast + 4 to activate. No.
- Inferno Titan: I love its versatility, but it's not exactly on point here.
- Pyrrhic Blast: A bit too expensive for a fling effect.
- Scuttling Doom Engine: Fun to fling, but underwhelming otherwise.
- Soul of Eternity: Cute on paper, but you need enough life to make it worth your while.
- Warstorm Surge: I don't feel like we run enough relevant creatures to justify its presence.
- Wild Ricochet: Fun protection spell, but not really needed here.
So, with that out of the way, we've reached...
Much, much better! Down to 110 cards, on to the final cuts!
Final Trim - Heart-wrenching Choices
It's cold in here, and yet I'm almost sweating. This has been a rough journey. As usual, any of the remaining cards (and many already cut to be honest) could be worthy inclusions.
In this last trim, I'll try to spread the love a bit. I feel like most of our sections are already fairly balanced, so let's try keeping it that way!
Without further ado, here are my last cuts:
- Spark Trooper: I love it, I love it, glorified Ball Lightning. But alas, one single mana too expensive.
- Stalking Vengeance: Technically a damage doubler, but 7 mana is too steep of a price.
- Angelic Renewal: Not sure we have enough relevant creatures to make this worthwhile.
- Flameshadow Conjuring: Very cool card, gives you double the fodder for Brion. But I'm not totally sure we're running enough creatures worth copying with the ability.
- Four Knocks: The single Card Advantage card I'll get rid of.
- Dawn of Hope: Ok, I lied. The lifegain is too situational here to be truly reliable. However, I'm replacing it with Wild Guess, a criminally underplayed draw spell in red.
- Feldon of the Third Path: The more cards we cut, the less juicy targets we find to reanimate. A great card, but slightly too unreliable here.
- Goblin Bombardment: Turning any threaten effect into an effective one.
- Commander's Sphere: The curve has dropped significantly, enough so that we can drop a rock in return.
- A single plains. Same reasoning as above.
- Wear // Tear: I have yet to cut a removal spell, and it's the worst of the remaining ones.
Et voilà ! We're done, and done, and DONE !
Conclusion
Yet another budget brew achieved, and I'm beat. As if Brion himself had decided to give me a thorough bashing massage.
What do you think? Is the big boy beating enough? Have you built the deck any differently? How much life did this monster of a giant net you?
Oh, and before I forget, let me know if I should be a little more lax in my budget criteria.
See you in two weeks!
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Arnaud Gompertz
Arnaud Gompertz has been playing Magic since 4th Edition, back in 1995. He's been an assiduous EDH enthusiast since 2012, with a soft spot for unusual and casual Commanders. He'll always favour spectacular plays against a boring path to victory. Aside from mistreating cardboard, he's a dedicated board games player, loves a challenging video game and occasionally tries to sing with his choir.
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