Hello folks! Well Commander 2016 is officially out and in folks hands! And now people have had a shot at playing with cards we’ve been discussing online (and in real life) for a few days. What has punched above its weight? What has disappointed?

Well, it’s time for me to do it. Time to build a deck around one of the four-color legendary creatures. And there’s only one, single option available. That’s right, Breya, Etherium Shaper.

Now I have a super secret I’ve never told a lot of folks. Back when Wizards of the Coast announced that the next slate of Commander decks would be four-color, I was really excited. So I set out to pen a five article series where I created a four-color legendary creature, and then a potential Commander deck that could be built around it for each color combination. My first legendary creature, deck, and article was mostly written but the concept had little traction over a series. So, I let it be.

My first legendary was also everything-but-Green. Here is my creation:

All of the triggers mirror each other (life vs damage, card drawn vs card discarded). All of them fit triggers their colors have for artifacts already. Now if play-testing showed that some were too powerful, you could tweak one. You could move the card drawn to a loot (draw and then discarded a card). Whatever. But the best part is that the comes-into-play riggers celebrate the birth, or creation, of an artifact by giving! And then they are saddened by the death and destruction of an artifact by hurting others! I liked that little duet.

Anyways, we don’t have Chromatic Metalweaver. But we do have Breya, and that’s enough for me!

Breya?s Boon ? Commander| Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Breya, Etherium Shaper

• Creatures (46)
• 1 Arcum Dagsson
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus
• 1 Bosh, Iron Golem
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Chief of the Foundry
• 1 Copper Gnomes
• 1 Darksteel Colossus
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Etched Champion
• 1 Etched Oracle
• 1 Etherium Sculptor
• 1 Ethersworn Shieldmage
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Goblin Welder
• 1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
• 1 Hangarback Walker
• 1 Jhoira's Toolbox
• 1 Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient
• 1 Master of Etherium
• 1 Master Transmuter
• 1 Memnarch
• 1 Muzzio, Visionary Architect
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1 Precursor Golem
• 1 Reclusive Artificer
• 1 Sanctum Gargoyle
• 1 Scarecrone
• 1 Sharding Sphinx
• 1 Sharuum the Hegemon
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Silas Renn, Seeker Adept
• 1 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sphinx Summoner
• 1 Steel Overseer
• 1 Sydri, Galvanic Genius
• 1 Wild-Field Scarecrow
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
• 1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

• Spells (11)
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Scrap Mastery
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Cranial Plating
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Dispeller's Capsule
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Executioner's Capsule
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Mindslaver

• Lands (37)
• 5 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 6 Island
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Glimmervoid
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Transguild Promenade
• 1 Urza's Factory

Buy This Deck

And there you are!

I wanted to focus on creatures, lands and artifacts. We only have 6 cards that aren’t one of those three. And four of those are Planeswalkers that have a real love of artifact — both iterations of Tezzeret and Daretti. Just Scrap Mastery and Fabricate make the cut for sorceries. (By the way, don’t sleep on Scrap Mastery. You can sacrifice artifacts to Breya and then bring them back, while taking out opposing artifacts in play.)

I wanted to emphasize creatures so much, because a ton of artifact enablers aren’t artifacts themselves. Sure, there are some artifact creatures that enable artifacts, like the new Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Master of Etherium. But many aren’t. And I really want to run these non-artifact powerhouses. For this deck, I’d rather run Hanna, Ship's Navigator than Refurbish. Breya wants to use non-artifact slots for creatures that help rather than sorceries or instants that do.

Let’s take a look at the non-artifact enablers we are rocking. I mentioned Hanna above. We also have Muzzio, Visionary Architect, which is as serious powerhouse here. You should almost always go at least four deep with your Commander in play. Plus the artifact you choose heads directly onto the battlefield. You can use that to drop something big and nasty if you get lucky. Darksteel Colossus? Blightsteel Colossus? You get the idea.

Other major players in the non-artifact enablers include Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Sydri, Galvanic Genius, Goblin Welder, Padeem, Consul of Innovation, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Many of those cards were reprinted recently in either Breya’s deck this past time or Daretti’s deck last year so you are familiar with them. Don’t forget you can use Arcum Daggson to convert an artifact creature such as Breya’s Thopter, to a powerful artifact like Darksteel Forge.

And we have some great synergetic non-artifacts as well, although I wouldn’t label them “enablers.” My favorite of the lot is Reclusive Artificer. When it arrives to the party, you can shoot a creature for damage equal to how many artifacts you control. It gives us some fun artifact-flavored removal. And you’ll see other creatures, both artifact and not in this vein like Duplicant and Noxious Gearhulk. We don’t have sorceries and instants to rely on for removal, so running artifacts and creature that will hew this route is strong.

What about artifact enablers? I tossed in pretty much any one I could find! Don’t forget that Memnarch will steal artifacts for you and then you can sacrifice them to stuff like Breya and Bosh. From Kuldotha Forgemaster and Steel Overseer to Scarecrone and Sharding Sphinx we have a lot of stuff.

So what else is there to recommend?

I have a few fun cards in here too, like Ethersworn Pathmage. That thing is fun, a nice surprise, and can come out of nowhere to keep a team alive. Another fun card I like is Copper Gnomes. Now it’s not on the Reserve list, so Wizards could reprint it at any time, but they haven’t, so you might not know about it. But it’s cheap, you can sacrifice it early to get your best artifact down, and you skip past counterspells, reactions, and you can bring it back with stuff like Academy Ruins or Hanna, Ship's Navigator if you like.

Speaking of recursion, we have a bunch here. Scrap Mastery! Buried Ruin! Goblin Welder! Sanctum Gargoyle! You get the idea. And we have a ton of tutoring as well. So get ready for Inventors' Fair and our Planeswalkers.

And that’s just creatures. Cranial Plating is a strong choice for turning smaller bodies into major threats, and seriously nasty. We have cheap artifact answers like Dispeller's Capsule and Executioner's Capsule, or Armillary Sphere as a good utility fetcher of lands. Burnished Hart? Wild-Field Scarecrow? Solemn Simulacrum? We have four colors, and we need to make sure we can cast our awesome cards. (And our leader.)Mana matters

And we have the great cards for a lot of stuff. Junk Diver and Etched Oracle. Wurmcoil Engine and Hangarback Walker. We’ve got the goods!

The first themed set in Magic’s history was Antiquities. And that was themed on artifacts. Ever since then we’ve seen sets with an artifact-centric theme. From Esper to Kaladesh to Mirrodin, we have planes and areas dedicated to artifacts. This is one of the great themes in Magic’s history.

Because of that, we have so many choices! Here are just a few I thought about, but ultimately decided against.

Artifacts, Enablers and Utilities

• Aladdin
• Barrage Ogre
• Arcbound modular creatures
• Chief Engineer
• Contraband Kingpin
• Disciple of the Vault
• Glaze Fiend
• Golem Artisan
• Grand Architect
• Metallugeon
• Metalwork Colossus
• Blade Splicer and the other Splicers
• Riddlesmith? Embersmith? Myrsmith? Painsmith?
• Ethersworn Canonist
• Voltaic Key, Voltaic Construct, Filigree Sages
• Feldon of the Third Path
• Filigree Angel
• Power Artifact, Heartstone, Training Grounds
• Flamewright
• Indomitable Archangel, Guardian Beast, Leonin Abunas
• Nim Devourer
• Ovalchase Daredevil
• Quicksmith Genius
• Razor Hippogriff or Restoration Gearsmith
• Reckless Fireweaver
• Confirm Suspicions
• Leonin Sun Standard
• Scourglass
• Inkwell Leviathan
• Nihil Spellbomb or Courier's Capsule
• Metalworker
• Scuttlemutt
• Soul of New Phyrexia, Steel Hellkite, Scuttling Doom Engine
• Karn, Silver Golem
• Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• Renowned Weaponsmith
• Thopter Assembly
• Thopter Engineer or Whirler Rogue
• Vedalken Archmage
• Syndicate Trafficker
• Skill Borrower
• Sensei's Divining Top or Scroll Rack
• Lodestone Golem or Lodestone Myr
• Refurbish, Argivian Restoration, Roar of Reclamation and such — Argivian Archaeologist as well. Obezedat's Aid
• Reshape and Transmute Artifact
• Trinket Mage or Treasure Mage
• Master Trinketeer
• Mycosynth Golem
• Puppet Conjurer
• Workshop Assistant
• Mycosynth Wellspring, Ichor Wellspring, Spine of Ish Sah

Boom! Those are a crap-ton of cards!

So what did you think of my take on Breya? Anything there you want to run? Any cards that spark your energy?

And what are you putting into your Breya decks?

P.S. — Now I had a bizarre take on Breya I decided to skip. Run all of the Splicers that make Golem tokens and help them with various abilities like first strike or flying. Then make all of your cards Golems with Conspiracy and/or Xenograft. Then use Precursor Golem to save or pump the whole team with stuff like Shelter or something. If that’s your Johnny thing, enjoy!