My first Magic: The Gathering BRAWL champion: Angrath, The Flame-Chained!

Magic: The Gathering post, Steemians! 98% of you can do the same as @eveuncovered; upvote from outside the feed and let me indulge in my nerdom for the moment. There’s a lot going on in MTG right now. We’re a couple months from Dominaria, the new Standard expansion, but more recently, Wizards of the Coast announced a new format called BRAWL. BRAWL is a half way point between Commander and Starnard. 60 individual cards, all Standard. Starting with 30 life. Commanders are Legendary creatures or planeswalkers in this format. 

First and foremost, I have to address the haters. I’ve been searching through MTG forums and sub-Reddits, trying to get inspired for deck ideas. In that search, I’ve come across a lot of hate. Comments like “…WOTC is just trying to sell more packs!”. Well, to that, I say “No shit. They are a company.”. For me personally, I like that BRAWL adds value to the mountain of Standard cards I have taking up space in a massive wooden chest in the middle of my living room.

My first attempt at a BRAWL deck was based on Kambal, Consul of Allocation. Black, white humans. It worked, somewhat. I wasn’t overwhelmed with it’s performance. I decided to try a brew built around a planeswalker I opened in a pack of Rivals of Ixalan while visiting Berrit and @danielkiessler in Palm Springs. It was a foil Angrath, the Flame-Chained! One of the coolest foil planeswalkers I’ve ever seen, but I didn’t have a black red deck, so for a while, he sat on the side-lines. With the introduction to BRAWL, I decided he needed a home. I began pulling my very best black and red cards in Standard and building a deck around Angrath.

Interestingly, most of my decks […almost all of my decks, actually] are build with a well honed synergy. Every card, somehow affecting or interacting with the other cards in the deck. This time, I literally just dug out all the very best cards, rares and mythic rares of each color, then smashed them together. HOLY SHIT, did that ever work! It’s not the block synergy that usually comes with entire sets, i.e. Humans, Dwarves or Angels, but many of these cards compliment one another, like every creature with Exert being able to untap by means of spells like Wrangle, Kari Zev’s Expertise and even Angrath’s minus three. 

Artifacts for this deck include the usual heavy hitters in Standard; the Gearhulks. Noxious and Combustable in this case. I dug out the Heart of Kiran, […which can be crewed with loyalty counters from planeswalkers]. Fleetwheel Cruiser makes its way in to almost all of my Standard decks, and a Paradox Engine for good measure. 

Some of the Instants and Sorceries I’m using are the staples of Standard. Torment of Hailfire is a game changer, and carries over to all opponents when playing against a few people. Abrade and Magma Spray for some quick, cheap removal, Vrashka’s Contempt gets rid of planeswalkers, and this is the first deck I’ve built that I can consistently, appropriately use Fatal Push. I finally see what all the huff is about. 

The creatures are all tough to deal with. Rekindling Phoenix gives you a 4/3 flyer that is more trouble if you kill him. To that point, the Scorpion God has to be exiled and of the three […Scorpion, Scarab and Locust] this God has the meanest power and toughness at 6/5. Gonti, Lord of Luxury can upset an entire game if you grab a top four card from your opponents’ library and it’s a doozie. He also has Deathtouch which can keep many attackers at bay. Herald of Anguish is bad enough as a 5/5 flyer, but he has Improve to cast quicker and the horrible discard trigger affect […I’ve been on the receiving end of this]. Lastly, Glorybringer with Haste and an Exert removal affect. 

I use a few of the favorite red spells to pump up and aggro my creatures […or my opponents creatures if I’ve stolen then], like Invigorated Rampage, Consuming Fervor and Built to Smash. I also included Liliana, Death’s Majesty and a quick way to bring creatures back to the battlefield […you can achieve this with her minus three as soon as she’s cast], and Chandra, Torch of Defiance because, why not?! Red deck and she’s a total badass. More than anything, I use her to add mama to cast or re-cast Angrath, but she definitely serves a purpose. 

Lands

12 x Mountains 

11 x Swamps

1 x Canyon Slough
 

Creatures 

1 x Combat Celebrant 

1 x Glorybringer 

1 x Gonti, Lord of Luxury 

1 x Neheb, the Eternal 

1 x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider 

1 x Rekindling Phoenix 

1 x Combustable Gearhulk 

1 x Herald of Anguish 

1 x Noxious Gearhulk 

1 x The Scorpion God 

1 x Bloodlust Inciter 

1 x Phyrexian Metamorph 

1 x Body Double 

1 x Darksteel Colossus 

1 x Torrential Gearhulk

Planeswalkers 

1 x Angrath, the Flame-Chained 

1 x Liliana, Death’s Majesty 

1 x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
 

Spells 

1 x Invigorated Rampage 

1 x Mastermind’s Acquisition 

1 x Hijack 

1 x Fatal Push 

1 x By Force 

1 x Doomfall 

1 x Harsh Scrutiny 

1 x Sunbird’s Invocation 

1 x Lay Bare the Heart 

1 x Consuming Fervor 

1 x Insult/Injury 

1 x Abrade 

1 x Unlicensed Disintegration 

1 x Never/Return 

1 x Vrashka’s Contempt 

1 x Limits of Solidarity 

1 x Torment of Hailfire 

1 x Kari Zev’s Expertise  

1 x Brute Strength
 

Artifacts 

1 x The Immortal Sun 

1 x Heart of Kiran 

1 x Fleetwheel Cruiser

There’s a side-board, but honestly, it’s mostly for @tarotbyfergus’ Nicol Bolas deck, only because it has virtually no creatures. As expected with aggro, this struggles against counter spells, but overall, it does incredibly well. During it’s initial run, it beat two different decks of @tarotbyfergus seven games in a row. It’s made me question the synergy philosophy a bit. Is it better to just have a shitload of the best cards of a given color arrangement?

Tomorrow, the @caffetto group is having a Masters 25 draft, so in advance, I’m sorry if some of you are getting MTG’ed out. After tomorrow, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled “…beautiful ladies in lingerie” posts, I assure you. Thanks for reading. For more gaming, photography, art and comics, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!