Much Abrew: Historic Brawl with Prosper, Tome-Bound
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. A few weeks ago, we played some Historic Brawl for Much Abrew, and I honestly was a bit worried about posting the video. Does anyone like Historic Brawl? Would anyone watch? But after the video went live, I was blown away by the response, with a ton of people talking about how Historic Brawl is their favorite format (and, in some cases, the only format they play on Magic Arena) and asking for more Historic Brawl content.
Well, Historic Brawl returns today for Much Abrew, and we're playing what might be my favorite deck in the format: Prosper, Tome-Bound, which is the deck I play most often for fun when I'm not making content. Not only does Prosper do exactly what you want in a 100-card singleton format (make mana and draw cards), but it also has some sweet synergies, and the Rakdos colors let us play some fun pet cards that aren't really strong enough for other formats, like Captive Audience and Chaos Wand. What does Prosper, Tome-Bound do in Historic Brawl? Let's get to the video and find out on today's Much Abrew About Nothing!
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Much Abrew: Prosper, Tome-Bound
Discussion
- While Alchemy Horizons has rightly gotten a lot of criticism, it did do one thing right by adding Prosper, Tome-Bound to Arena (even though Prosper is actually from an old precon deck rather than Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate). The four-drop is a super-fun commander. Not only does it generate card advantage and mana, which is super powerful, but it also cares about cards being played from exile, which lets us play some weird cards that don't work especially well with any other commanders, like Nalfeshnee, Light Up the Stage, Chaos Wand, and more.
- While I'm pretty happy with my build of Prosper for Historic Brawl, if you're looking to build around the legend yourself, you're basically looking for two things: ways to cast cards from exile (to make Treasures with Prosper) and Treasure payoffs (to take advantage of the Treasures that Prosper makes). Some of the best support cards in the deck (like Professional Face-Breaker) do both!
- If you're looking for Prosper all-stars, some of the best cards in the deck include Birgi, God of Storytelling (the front side is fine for ramp, but the backside is absurd with Prosper, allowing us to discard cards to exile cards and then play them, which allows for some weird pseudo-Storm-style turns where we cast a bunch of cards from exile using the Treasures that Prosper makes as we're casting the spells), Nalfeshnee (basically a Prosper Panharmonicon), and Etali, Primal Storm (which is just a super-fun card in general but also works really well with Prosper since it casts things from exile).
- Of course, one of the reasons I enjoy playing Historic Brawl is that it's the perfect format to play with pet cards that aren't quite good enough for 60-card formats, and we got to see some of my personal favorites do work during our games. Chaos Wand isn't an especially good card because it's super random, but it is hilarious, and it can be game-saving when it works (see: the Farewell). We also got to see Captive Audience wreck multiple people. While the enchantment doesn't do anything specific with Prosper, Tome-Bound, it is a really cool card in Prosper's colors, which is why it's in the deck.
- Oh yeah, Prosper is also a great commander for trying to pull off the Revel in Riches win. While we can get enough Treasures just from Prosper itself, cards like Blood Money make it even easier to get up to 10 Treasures and win the game on our upkeep.
- On the other hand, it is worth mentioning a couple of cards in the deck that aren't actually as good as they look at first glance in Arcane Bombardment and Mizzix's Mastery. While both cards are powerful and fun, the cards you cast with them won't actually trigger Prosper, Tome-Bound because they technically exile cards and then let you cast copies, which isn't the same as casting the card itself from exile. I kept them in the deck because I like playing with them. Just be warned that they aren't going to give you a bunch of Prosper Treasures.
- Anyway, that's my build of Prosper. If you like drawing tons of cards and making oodles of mana, I'd highly recommend it for Historic Brawl. Of course, if you decide to use this build, feel free to make it your own and throw in whatever pet cards you want. Thanks to Prosper's ability to draw cards and make Treasures, there's a pretty good chance you'll find them and be able to cast them eventually, even if they are expensive and janky, like Captive Audience!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
