Last week, the Duel Commander format was subject to two major changes. Unsurprisingly, the ban to Nadu, Winged Wisdom seemed to garner the most attention. This is yet another format where the broken Bird had run its course, after all. On top of that, though, Breya, Etherium Shaper also earned its freedom as a Commander via an experimental unban.
Breya was banned as a Commander option in the format way back in 2017. While the card is undoubtedly powerful, it was a bit unclear whether the legend would have what it takes to compete in a powercrept world. Yet, a handful of different shells with Breya at the helm have quickly found success, showcasing that the Human has indeed stood the test of time.
The Power of Breya, Etherium Shaper
Part of what makes Breya such a powerful Commander option is that you don’t actually need any major synergies to make it work. A four-mana 4/4 that comes with two 1/1 fliers is already ahead on rate. These Thopters do a fantastic job fighting over the Monarch and the Initiative, while the 4/4 body helps buy you time against the slew of top-tier aggro decks in the format.
On top of that, the Thopters then feed Breya’s activated ability, which provides incredible versatility. Being able to kill opposing game-ending Commanders like Lier, Disciple of the Drowned on command is a huge boon. At the same time, any red aggro shell will struggle to burn you out in grindy games thanks to the final life gain option.
Of course, it doesn’t take much to maximize this Commander even further. Any artifact token producers become significantly scarier with Breya’s activated ability looming. Artifacts with strong death triggers like Chaos Defiler are even stronger alongside Breya than they would be elsewhere.
With all of these factors in mind, your opponent will often feel pressured to get Breya off the table. The problem is that when you recast it for six mana, you’ll produce more Thopters and your opponent is back to square one. Having all of this upside on an efficient four-color Commander is nice, since you get to make use of an array of powerhouses across the color spectrum that further bolster your gameplan.
Building Around Breya
Given how easy it is to get your money’s worth from Breya and the vast card pool that players have to utilize in these four-color decks, we’re already starting to see a couple different archetype styles emerge with Breya in the Command Zone. The simplest strategy that’s putting up results is classic Four-Color Midrange. Despite being centered around Breya, this deck runs very few artifacts in the 99 at all.
Instead of relying on artifact synergies and combos, Four-Color Midrange is just looking to beat the opponent with high card quality. From Ocelot Pride to Psychic Frog, there are tons of must-answer threats scattered throughout. Some of these premium options, including Raffine, Scheming Seer and Broadside Bombardiers, pair nicely with Breya simply because the Commander makes it easier to go wide.
In addition to being a decent finisher in attrition battles, though, Breya has opened the door for more dedicated artifact decks to emerge. Four-Color Artifacts decks have had a lot of recent success of their own and are structured quite differently. For example, the Artifact-centric Breya decks are much more focused on using Talismans to accelerate out Breya ahead of schedule. Once you land your Commander, jamming Prison elements like Winter Orb and Tangle Wire can make life extremely awkward for the opponent. Your mana rocks make Orb much less concerning to you, while your Thopter tokens act as easy fuel for Wire.
Unsurprisingly, for a deck with a high density of artifacts, Urza, Lord High Artificer is one of your absolute best tools that the Four-Color Midrange versions miss out on. Urza combos nicely with Orb since you can tap it on your opponent’s end step, and the legend even lends itself to an infinite combo alongside Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek.
Even in the games where you draw Sword without Foundry or Urza, sacrificing Sword to Breya’s ability has a lot of appeal, especially if you have Retrofitter Foundry rolling as a way to continuously flood the board with 1/1s. These 1/1s then perfectly pair with Skullclamp, which acts as a late game grindy engine. With some search effects like Enlightened Tutor and Tezzeret, Cruel Captain in the mix, you have a lot of agency in a variety of matchups.
The Experiment Moving Forward
The level of flexibility in successful brews that Breya empowers could be borderline worrysome. This Commander is already showing signs of potentially being homogenous in Duel Commander, but there are some plus sides to having Breya back in the format.
Over the last year, artifact strategies haven’t been very competitive. The Duel Commander Council that oversees the format stated back in January that part of the reason Akiri, Line-Slinger was unbanned was to “allow the emergence of artifact-based archetypes“, but even the combination of Akiri and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept wasn’t enough to revive these decks.
It’s also nice that there’s more diversity within midrange shells. Rather than having most midrange enthusiasts flock to Aragorn, King of Gondor, there are now more considerations to be had. As such, Breya’s immediate success is, for now, a breath of fresh air. It’ll be interesting if the potent legend can keep up these performances in the coming months.
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