Upgrading Commander Precon: Mishra's Burnished Banner

The decks of the The Brothers' War Commander set were created with opposite goals based on artifacts. Our article will deal with the Grixis deck, based on noncreature artifacts, Mishra's Burnished Banner.

Mishra, Eminent One is the precon's highlighted legendary creature, and among the legends that make up this deck his qualities inside the theme make him the best option, given his ability to multiply the value created by the artifacts that make up the deck.

This deck is for those who enjoy playing with artifacts in a very scaled strategy, similar to a gear shift, in which we will advance, growing turn after turn, creating a lot of value.

The standard selection of cards in this precon covers in a refined way all the needs of a Commander deck, by having multiple solid pillars with a well-constructed mana base, a very efficient removal set and plenty of draws.

The use of low cost artifacts with ramp, tricks and eggs, having various roles, are the deck's engine as the match goes on. They end up being a powerful attack force when transformed into Mishra's Warform, 4/4 constructs.

Mishra is remembered by the event of the Brothers War, in which we know him by the handle of Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia. The relevance of that who is the youngest between the siblings is much bigger in the Magic: the Gathering lore.

Connected with bigger events, which were shown in the The Antiquities War and The Brothers' War sagas, Mishra has his legacy described in the Armada comics and in the trilogy known as Artifacts Cycle, which alongside other stories covers also the novel – The Brothers' War until the recent events of the current set.

Ashnod the Uncaring is a strong contender and an excellent addition to the 99, amplifying the powerful synergies with Mishra, Eminent One. However, Mishra's apprentice demands a dedicated construction for her abilities to be leveled to the maximum.

Once more in combat our commander creates a Mishra's Warform Token, and this token gets haste and must be sacrificed by the end of the turn. Okay, but what is the advantage of that?

The created tokens have the abilities of the cloned artifact, this way replicating ETBs (Enters the battlefield), activated abilities and triggered ones. Many are the abilities of Mishra's Warform Tokens in case it is a vehicle, for instance, it is already a creature without the need for crewing.

We can double legends, as the original artifact and the copy have different names, abilities that have as their cost sacrificing the permanent one can be repeated turn after turn, avoiding limitations and creating loops that wouldn't be possible in other settings. These characteristics make our prodigy a powerful combo piece or a very dangerous doubler.

Constructed in a way as to explore the artifact theme in an elegant way, this precon uses the synergies between artifacts and Mishra, Eminent One as a value engine.

The care with the card selection in this list is so great that in their groups there are specific tactics to deal with the graveyard, global removal, spot removals and recourse tools, this way dealing with most real game situations.

Opting for Mishra, Eminent One as a commander makes the great majority of tricks and cards with small effects that allow for card draw, be transformed into a true advantage in cards at the same time the commander doubles their effect.

Most weaknesses are connected to the high cost of their finishers, creating a false impression that it is a deck that depends on specific circumstances of long games to develop their strategy. It is necessary a better match development through ramp or ways to reduce the mana curve, gaining more presence in the initial turns.

Mana Sources

The mana sources make up for a great number of cards that fill up half the deck, and as much as this seems overkill, it is a measure of space dedicated to most decks.

Empirically we have in the format the use of 35 to 37 lands added to 10 or more ramp, many of them artifacts, and other resources able to correct the colors inside our mana curve. Among other sources, we have 50 dedicated cards in Mishra's Burnished Banner. Let's analyze the list:

Without a question a great list, which needs just a few centered adjustments in the desired functionalities of mana rocks. We will opt for a sub theme of vehicles, and Cosima, God of the Voyage and Hoard Hauler are excellent choices.

The opposite side of Cosima, God of the Voyage, The Omenkeel makes all vehicles mana sources by stealing lands from our opponent's deck and allow us to play normally.

Hoard Hauler is a very strong mana engine as it creates treasures based on the number of artifacts controlled by our opponents, this way being a more fair or"nerfed" version of Dockside Extortionist.

Raiders' Karve is interesting, as it allows us to look at the card on the top of our deck and play it in case it is a land, a dose of card advantage and ramp.

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When we opt for a smaller number of lands that come in face down, we think of replacing them for others that can guarantee a more fluid match. The use of utility lands that interact with artifacts and specifically with vehicles are our priorities, and this way we get to the following list:

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Draw

This precon has a very robust selection of card draw. For didactic purposes, let's consider that card draw refers to cards that create the addition of two or more cards to the hand or board, not considering the ones that only refill their initial position in hand – for those, I will use the term "tricks". From this premise, we come to the following array of cards:

A high number that can be enhanced in quality when we speed up their arrival to the board or the activation of their effects.

Considering that, cards such as Glint Raker and Geth, Lord of the Vault, though very strong, are very slow. The vehicles Reckoner Bankbuster, Smuggler's Copter and Weatherlight are good additions to the proposed theme – creating extra draw already in the early turns, besides being synergic with Mishra, and adding more fluidity to our plays.

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Removals

The removal package proposed is quite varied, being able to deal with most threats in a satisfactory way.

The most commonly accepted division categorizes spot removals (interactions and removals that have only one or more targets), board wipe (spells that destroy, exile or even return all permanent cards of one or more categories), graveyard hate (interactions able to remove one or more cards from the graveyard).

Let's observe next the cards that make up for the removal set:

Detailing the categories, the spot removals have excellent fast and versatile options such as Abrade, Feed the Swarm, Bedevil and Chaos Warp.

Spine of Ish Sah has its place in artifact decks that are capable of bypassing their cost or doubling their effect.

Herald of Anguish is a sacrifice engine and a smaller way of controlling your opponent's hand, so even though we have more interactions with sacrifices, this one is a card that diverts from the central themes and because of that it was removed. Aside from that, Executioner's Capsule is an effective and fast creature controller that can be decisive regarding board development.

The board clears include Blasphemous Act, which is a staple in decks with access to the red color, and the most recent Terisiare's Devastation combines ramp with removal, being unusual and excellent.

We added Eye of Doom, which when combined with the deck synergies causes a lot of losses to our opponents. Always efficient, Nihil Spellbomb can deal with graveyards effectively, and we added Nautiloid Ship, which has the same role at the same time as it creates card advantage.

Oblivion Stone is a good card, but in this deck it performed very slowly, being unplayable in most of the tests.

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Other sets and alterations

In this deck we have a kit that might be considered "amplifiers", so cards that perform the role of amplifying value creation, in this case the doublers or clones with the objective or multiplying synergies by making our cards trigger many times in one activation only.

Besides that, there is a sub theme of tokens creating Servo // Thopter Token, which is explored more subtly and its relevance is elevated with the presence of vehicles.

Amplifiers

The finishers are creatures able to create a big impact in the game in case they aren't controlled, and this deck has a strong presence of these creatures.

We choose the alternative of potentiating their interactions and reducing the deck's bombs by having Thunderhawk Gunship and Rise and Shine as its biggest threats. This being:

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The Mishra, Eminent One deck when compared to the Urza's precon, which also already has a Upgrade Guide, causes the wrong impression that it is weaker or that it depends on a certain star placement to work.

However, when it does work, our deck has an unstoppable development. That happens because of its devastating creatures and explosive synergies. When refined, the Mishra deck is at the same level or even has more potential than Urza's.

Besides that, the Machine God's Effigy card, present in the Mishra's Burnished Banner deck is quite powerful, as it can be shown in the Mateus Nogueira's Article.

Mishra is unquestionably one of the most underrated characters in all of Magic: The Gathering's lore. He is a brilliant archaeologist, prodigy artificer and rival to the biggest planeswalker in all of Dominaria's history, his leadership and talent skills are legendary and of course, his looks are the most stylish!

Alternative list, focused on combos and aggression

This deck follows the objective of being an upgrade option to this precon, however it is much more offensive, going by control and combo lines that are always polemic.

When we opt for a more consistent combo or thief line, we need to have in mind that it is a great way to lose friends and cultivate enemies in casual tables.

I hope you've found some interesting ideas to upgrade your deck and take part in this intense battle that is The Brothers' War!

Choose your side and take what's best from Commander. Thank you for reading and good luck!

Any questions, I'm at your disposal in the comment section!