Hello everybody and welcome back to another article of Brawl Haul! Before jumping into this week's brew, I am going to try something a bit different for deciding what next week's article is going to feature. Instead of picking from a small group and having people pick from that pool, now I am just going to take requests. Because of that, if there are any commanders that interest you, make sure to let me know! Anyway, let us tear into this week's brew!

Overview

The commander for this week's brew is Kykar, Wind's Fury. This bird wizard cares about us constantly casting non-creature spells, resulting in what I would say is the best spell-slinger deck in the format. For those who do not know, spell-slinger is an archetype where you typically have one creature, that being your commander, and then the rest of the deck being spells that power up the commander in some way. The archetype has its flaws but overall is not only dominant due to its flexibility but also very fun because of how it plays out.

What makes Kykar the Best Spell-Slinger Commander?

Before I go into why I believe Kykar to be the best spell-slinger commander, first let us meet the competition. The commanders that come closest to competing with Kykar are God-Eternal Kefnet, Talrand, Sky Summoner, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, and Niv-Mizzet Reborn. While God-Eternal Kefnet and Talrand are both stronger when in a larger pool of cards, brawl's restricted card pool makes both decks scrap for playable cards. Saheel, Sublime Artificer has access to two colors which gives access to a wider variety of playable cards, but her downtick is rarely going to see use and the fact she's a planeswalker means that you will have to sink more mana into her instead of casting spells. The last option is Niv-Mizzet Reborn, who despite how he often plays out, is not really a spell-slinger deck as it does not need to rely on noncreature spells.

         

Now that the competition is out of the way, what does Kykar do for us that makes him so much better than the rest? You might have noticed that two of the four cards that rival Kykar's throne have a similar ability to create tokens when a spell is cast, but unlike them, Kykar has a payoff built into him, allowing us to turn the spells we cast into mana, to cast more spells. While we can never go net-positive, as well as going net-neutral being rather difficult as well, the deck can output a lot more spells than a typical spell-slinger deck could for brawl. Combine that with the fact the tokens he outputs are hard for most opponents to interact with due to flying, as well as having access to both blue and white, which got a fair amount of 'Flying Matters' cards in Core Set 2020, and we have essentially a one-man army. If we untap with him, it becomes hard for most people to deal with him due to being in red white blue, which gives the deck access to every good counterspell currently legal in the format.

Everything is not all good news for Kykar though. Given his colors, it is hard for the deck to have access to ramp. While this is not a downside once we are producing spirits before that happens the deck is fairly flimsy. More often than not it is the proper play to play Kykar on 4, but if he dies then we are often stuck in the water for a bit, costing us the match. In order for Kykar to become essentially untouchable, we need to untap with him, which is not something that always happens. The deck is also very mana intensive, so missing land drops hurt more than it would hurt a normal deck, as well as colors being hard to manage sometimes due to playing a tri-color deck.

Our Creatures

While I know I went on about how spell-slinger decks typically only run one creature, there are a number of creatures that are strong enough to be worth running in a deck over another noncreature card. These cards are Empyrean Eagle, Harmonious Archon, Murmuring Mystic, and Sephara, Sky's Blade.

         

Empyrean Eagle has two main functions in the deck, one is providing a +1/+1 effect to all of our spirits, as well as every card in the deck aside from one, while the other is providing some form of early board presence before Kykar comes down. A fun interaction to note though is that Empyrean Eagle is also a spirit, and thus can be sacrificed to Kykar for mana if needed be. Up next is Harmonious Archon, which is similar to Empyrean Eagle in that it makes our spirits considerably larger, but it also makes trading with the opponent's creatures significantly easier as well. It also works exceptionally well with Empyrean Eagle, turning all our creatures with flying into 4/4 bodies. Murmuring Mystic is the only creature without flying in our deck, but makes up for this in producing a ton of creatures with flying. He plays a role very similar to that of Saheeli, Sublime Artificer can fill, but I prefer him due to being a strong blocker as well as being harder to remove. Finally, Sephara, Sky's Blade tops the curve as being not only a large creature we can cheat out fairly early but also for giving almost all our creatures indestructible. This makes us durable to a single board clear, which will hopefully give us enough time to finish off the opponent before the second comes.

Notable Spells

While all the spells ran serve some sort of purpose, there are a few that exceed expectations, as they either work well with the rest of the deck or are just strong as standalone cards. These spells are Heartfire, Heliod's Intervention, Thassa's Intervention, Flame Sweep and Drawn from Dreams.

      

   

While seemingly a bad card, when compared to other burn spells such as Shock or Jaya's Greeting, Heartfire's downside is essentially nonexistent as it consumes a spirit but then makes one as well. Combine this with the fact that four damage at instant speed is fairly good, and it becomes evident as to why this card is in the deck. The next two spells, Heliod and Thassa's Intervention, are two very strong cards. Both have the advantage of being X spells which give us an outlet when we produce a large number of spirits and have no actual payoff for them, as well as both of them being instants. Heliod's Intervention is significantly more hit or miss, but when the opponent has a fair amount of artifacts or enchantments, it becomes one of the strongest cards in the deck. As for Thassa's Intervention, being a counterspell is already nice but it comes with the upside of also being an incredibly strong way to filter through cards. Flame Sweep is simply just a board clear that does not clear any of our creatures, letting us keep on our aggressive pushes while not worrying about the opponent's creatures. The last spell that I believe to be notable is Drawn from Dreams, which is essentially a cheaper Thassa's Intervention at sorcery speed. It provides a ton of card filtering and helps make the deck more consistent.

Beat Down

Now that we have amassed an army of spirits, it is time to weaponize them. While white has a large number of mass buff spells, most of them did not make the list as they are too inefficient or felt like 'win-more' cards. That being said, the ones that did make the deck were Cavalcade of Calamity, Mace of the Valiant, and Rally of Wings.

      

Although it does not play nicely with any other buff cards, as well as two of our creatures, Cavalcade of Calamity puts in work when it is by itself. It makes killing planeswalkers a walk in the park as well as pushing damage on the opponent. Mace of the Valiant is incredibly strong if it is played early on as it makes every noncreature spell we cast pump up a specific creature. There have been times where I have had upwards of 25 counters on it, resulting in whatever has equipped it into a must-block threat. Rally of Wings is exceptionally strong as well due to its doubling up, allowing us to push for lethal as well as protecting us if we decide to flunge out. It is a great combat trick and it overshadows the rest of them by a long shot.

Value Pieces

Sometimes the game goes long and we need to play a grinder game. This is where our value pieces come into play, giving us the tools to out grind most of our opponents. The cards that do this are Dovin, Grand Arbiter, Smothering Tithe, and Narset, Parter of Veils.

      

While his first two abilities are low-impact, Dovin, Grand Arbiter's final ability is enough to make up for it. Due to our creatures innately being evasive, it is easy to give Dovin a lot of loyalty counters quickly, resulting in us being able to filter a ton of cards and grind out value. Smothering Tithe is a slow card, but its effect adds up after a couple turns and is amazing for what we want it to do. It either suffocates the enemy's mana or helps ramp us in the early game to get to a point where we are ahead. It also works incredibly well with Emergency Powers as it makes the spell net us 7 mana if the opponents do not pay for the tax, which is often the case. The final card to help us grind out the game is Narset, Parter of Veils. While her downtick is strong for a bit of card selection, her static ability is probably the strongest in the game, preventing our opponents from getting ahead. It also basically wins the game if you play Emergency Powers, as refueling yourself and getting rid of your opponent's hand all in one go is very strong.

Other Notable Cards

While pretty much all the noncreature spells deserve a mention for just how much stronger they get with Kykar in play, there are a few that stand out for being strong in the archetype as a whole or for being strong answers for the format. These cards are Emergency Powers, Dovin's Veto, Lava Coil, Scorching Dragonfire, Castle Vantress, and Castle Ardenvale.

         

   

Like many other wheel effects in the past, Emergency Powers is an absolute powerhouse in the deck. Being able to refresh your hand is always strong and given the low curve of the deck, we can often abuse it more than our opponent can and when combined with Smothering Tithe or Narset, Parter of Veils, we can often blow past our opponents. Dovin's Veto is very nice as it lets us counter a spell and not give the opponent the chance to counter back in any way. There is not much else to say about the card aside from the fact it is very strong at protecting our gameplan. Lava Coil and Scorching Dragonfire are both strong removal spells, which helped a fair amount as when testing I ran into a fair amount of decks focused on reanimating creatures, which these cards excel against. Finally, we have two of the three castles we are running. Both of them are amazing for the deck as we are often reactionary and they give us something to sink our mana into if we did not need to cast any spells during the opponent's turn. Vantress is better as I prefer card selection over creatures most the time, but Ardenvale is also worthwhile for being able to grind someone out of a game.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Kykar plays a lot like traditional spell-slinger decks, excelling in the mid to late game as the extra mana lets us interact with our opponents the most freely. Because of that, we are strong against any deck that does not focus on beating down early. Due to running a fair amount of interaction, this should not be that difficult most of the time, resulting in an overall strong deck.

Probably the largest weakness for this style of deck is just inexperience playing spell-slinger. Knowing when to go shields down in order to push damage is very important and for people without a lot of experience in the archetype, it might be difficult. The deck is also fairly weak to mass amounts of board clears, about 3-4. Luckily there are not a ton of decks built with this many in them, but it is still an issue when it pops up.

The Decklist

If you are interested in playing the deck yourself, here is a link to the decklist.

Wrap Up

Compared to how long it took to refine the Eutropia list, this one felt like a walk in the park for the most part. While straightforward in what he wants to do, Kykar is able to run a lot more interaction without hurting the game plan. Due to the relative ease to find success with him, I had a very good time brewing with him. I have always been a fan of spell-slinger decks and so it is nice to be able to pilot one once again. If you want to try out the archetype for yourself, I would definitely recommend my list or just any Kykar deck for that matter.

Once again I want to note that I am going to shake things up a bit for next week's article. Instead of providing a couple of commanders to pick from, I am going to open it up to just any form of suggestions. If there is any card that stands out to you, make sure to let me know in the comments below. Until then, good luck brewing!