Hello everybody and welcome back to the final Brawl Haul article before the launch of Ikoria! The new set is full of amazing cards that I just cannot wait to get my hands on. However, the set still is not out yet so for now, this is the last Brawl Haul for Theros Beyond Death, I hope you all enjoy it!

Overview

The main goal of this deck is to get a creature to stick, put on a lot of auras to buff them up, then use Calix to either act as an on-demand Oblivion Ring or a value engine to pull the deck ahead to eventually beat down the opponent. In many ways, this deck operates in a similar fashion as the Eutropia, the Twice-Favored deck, with the only main difference being that it is WG instead of UG.

What makes Calix, Destiny’s Hand a good Commander?

Our deck wants to do three main things, play small creatures, throw on a lot of enchantments, then get in for damage and Calix is able to help do all 3 of these. Calix’s uptick is a great value engine, as 21 cards in the deck are enchantments. This helps with the first two goals of the deck, and as for getting in for damage, Calix’s downtick can turn an innately aggressive deck into a fairly decent control deck. There is not as much enchantment removal in the format right now so and so it is essentially just unconditional removal. While a strong ability, Calix’s ultimate is often overkill and it is much better to just remove pressure from the board instead of making a massive swing turn.

 

Aura Targets

The first step of the deck is to get some creatures to stick on the board. While many of our creatures are able to do that decently, there are a few creatures that excel at being in this role. These creatures are Nessian Wanderer, Paradise Druid, Setessan Champion, and Siona, Captain of Pyleas.

         

At first glance, Nessian Wanderer doesn’t seem to do much, its an ok body with an ok ability for the most part attached to it. However, it is an absurd form of card advantage for any deck playing a decent amount of enchantments, as with about half the games I had played with it in this deck, I drew a majority, if not all, of the lands in the deck just by triggering his ability. Paradise Druid is also fairly underwhelming at first, but the fact its a mana dork and has hexproof a decent chunk of the time makes it a great target for all our auras, especially once we start using Calix to exile creatures under them. Setessan Champion is strong just because it gets large fast and makes sure we constantly have auras to attach onto our creatures. Siona, Captain of Pyleas gives us an enchantment when she enters the battlefield, as well as providing a lot of creatures when the ball starts rolling.

Auras

Once a creature is on the field, we need to start putting auras on them to make them viable threats.  The ones that I have found to be the strongest are All that Glitters, Mantle of the Wolf, Sentinel’s Eyes, and Warbriar Blessing.

         

All that Glitters is without a doubt the strongest aura in the deck. It easily gives our creature at least +3/+3, with oftentimes being a lot more. Combining it with any form of evasion can put on a quick clock. Mantle of the Wolf also provides a decent sized buff, in addition to providing more tokens if that creature of the aura gets removed. Sentinel’s Eyes is a continuous enchantment we can throw onto our creatures, as well as having vigilance on a large creature being very strong. Warbriar Blessing is also a very strong enchantment as it often lets us 2 for 1 the opponents by first removing a creature then exiling another creature onto it with Calix.

Constellation and Other Support Cards

There are plenty of cards that help make sure our opponents cannot react well with our creatures, as well as constellation, being incredibly good for this style of deck. The cards that do this the best are Bronzehide Lion, Dawn Evangel, Rule of Law, and Archon of Sun’s Grace.

         

Bronzehide Lion is already a strong creature on its own, being a watchwolf at least. Once it sticks for a turn it can become very hard to remove, and if it were to die, it makes another creature just as hard to remove. Dawn Evangel does a similar thing, making it awkward for our opponents to remove our creatures without something being recurred. Rule of Law can be a bit awkward at first, but it hoses some decks in the format so much that it is well worth the downside of making Calix not be as strong. Finally, Archon of Sun’s Grace often can just win the game on its own if it is left alone. It pumps out an absurd amount of pegasus that all let help us stabilize that if it is not cleared immediately, chances are we will just win.&nbsp.

Other Notable Cards

There are some other cards that I wouldn’t really say fit the rest of the themes of the deck but are very fun to play with that I believe deserve a mention, as well as some cards that are exceptionally good in a deck like this. These cards are Rampage of the Clans, Karametra’s Blessing and Idyllic Tutor.

         

So I’ll be honest, Rampage of the Clans really should not be in the deck. It makes downticking Calix feel awful as well as hurting the rest of our oblivion ring effects. However, being able to turn our entire board into 3/3 creatures and then Overcome our opponent for lethal is one of the best feelings in the game, especially since nobody expects it. The card works great with Smothering Tithe, it is just a hysterical way to close out the game. As for cards that are actually strong in the deck, Karametra’s Blessing is able to blow out the opponent incredibly easily, providing hexproof if our stuff gets targeted, indestructible if its creature damage or just pumps up a creature for lethal. Idyllic Tutor is nice to tutor up any of the specific enchantments we would want, whether it be an Oblivion Ring effect, some form of removal, or any lock pieces. The final card that excels in the deck is Season of Growth, which just turns almost all our enchantments into cantrips as well, in addition to letting us filter draws better with any of our creatures. It is a small effect that adds up incredibly quickly

Strengths and Weaknesses

I’ve had an absolute blast playing this deck, to the point where it is probably my go-to deck right now for Brawl. It excelled decent number decks I face against on a daily basis and there were not a lot of decks that I felt I had a bad matchup against.

The issue this deck faces is that there is very little we can do about Field of the Dead, which is still dominating a lot of the format. Our only options are to beat down the opponent quickly, or eventually overrun the opponent with Rampage of the Clans and Overcome. The deck also sometimes runs into an issue of having our creatures removed early, preventing us from using our auras on anything.

The Decklist

If your interested in this week’s decklist, here is a link to it!

Wrap Up

As mentioned briefly before, I have had an absolute blast playing this deck. Unlike the Eutropia deck, it is able to go much farther into the game and still be able to win as Calix is an absolute powerhouse. I would recommend trying the deck if you want to play some form of enchantress style deck, but I would avoid making it yet just because Ikoria is coming out later this week and is bringing a ton of fun tools.

With all that being said, thank you very much for reading this week’s article of Brawl Haul! Encase me mentioning Ikoria a ton has not made it clear enough yet, I absolutely love that set and already have some decklists brewing, If any of the new legendary creatures in the set interest you, make sure to let me know and I will see what I can come up with to make the card shine. Until then, good luck brewing!