Commander blueprint · Lorwyn Eclipsed

How to build Brigid, Clachan's Heart // Brigid, Doun's Mind

Brigid, Doun's Mind taps for one mana per other creature you control, and she can pay the white mana that flips her back out of that same tap. So she makes mana on every turn and a Kithkin on every second one, and this list treats every creature it casts as ramp.

Art by Zoltan Boros

Brigid is a 3/2 for that makes a 1/1 green and white Kithkin when she enters. At the beginning of your first main phase you may pay to transform her, and her back face taps for X green or X white, where X is the number of other creatures you control. The back face carries the same trigger in reverse: pay at the start of your first main phase and she turns back to Clachan's Heart, making another Kithkin on the way. One face makes bodies and the other face turns bodies into mana. These ninety-nine cards are built to feed both halves of that, with 27 creatures, nineteen cards that make tokens, and a set of spells that take as much green or white as she can make and turn it into more creatures, more cards or a finished game.

She pays for her own flip back

The two transform triggers read like a one-mana tax on every turn. Only one of them is. When the back face's trigger asks for , you can tap her for mana while you pay it, so take X white, put one into the trigger, and the other X minus one stay in your pool until that main phase ends. She turns back to Clachan's Heart, and the Kithkin arrives. On your next turn a land pays the , she turns over again, and she taps for X.

Count it from the turn she is cast. That turn she makes a token. On the next she flips with a from a land and taps. On the one after, she taps while her own trigger is asking for white, flips back, and makes her second token. From there she makes mana on every turn and a Kithkin on every other turn, and each Kithkin is one more mana on every tap that follows.

Two smaller rules come out of the same timing. She never needs haste, because her mana face only appears at the start of a main phase on a turn that began with her already in play. And the mana from a flip-back turn is spent before combat, because it only exists during that first main phase. A turn that starts on Clachan's Heart is the turn her mana can wait for a block or an opponent's spell.

With Seedborn Muse out, stop paying the white

Seedborn Muse untaps all of your permanents in every opponent's untap step. Quest for Renewal does the same for your creatures once it holds four quest counters, and it gets one each time a creature you control becomes tapped, Brigid's own tap included. Either card changes the sum on the flip. Turn her back to Clachan's Heart and she spends the next three turns on the face with no mana ability, so one Kithkin costs you three taps. Leave her on Doun's Mind instead and she taps on every turn at the table. Quest for Renewal costs two and is no Game Changer, which is why the budget rung keeps it when Seedborn Muse goes.

That mana needs a place to go on other people's turns, and the instants are it. Secure the Wastes turns X plus a white into X Warriors. March of the Multitudes makes lifelinking Soldiers and lets the creatures you already have help pay for them. Decree of Justice cycles for at instant speed and makes Soldiers off the cycle. Sprout Swarm comes back to your hand every time you pay its buyback. The best moment is the end step of the player who sits before you. Brigid taps for X, Secure the Wastes turns that into X minus one Warriors, and a few seconds later your untap step hands her back a count that includes all of them.

Nine of the twelve ramp cards are creatures

A Llanowar Elves in this deck makes two mana. It taps for one, and it is one more creature for Brigid to count. A mana rock would make one, which is why the only one in the list is Sol Ring. Of the twelve cards here that add mana, nine are creatures: six one-drops that tap for it, Wood Elves, Circle of Dreams Druid and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest. Two of the other three only work through creatures. Cryptolith Rite lets every creature you control tap for a mana of any color, and The Great Henge costs less by the greatest power among them.

Jaheira and Cryptolith Rite also make every token a mana source. A Kithkin adds one to Brigid's count the moment it enters, and from your next turn it taps for one more itself, so a token made today is two mana tomorrow.

Circle of Dreams Druid is the card in this group most worth knowing. It is Doun's Mind's ability on a creature that costs , and it counts itself, so with both out the deck has its commander's best trick twice. Growing Rites of Itlimoc is a third copy that arrives late. It looks at four cards for a creature when it enters, and at the beginning of your end step, if you control four or more creatures, it turns into Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, a land that taps for per creature.

Three cards that untap her, and the Forests two of them eat

Seeker of Skybreak taps to untap another creature. Quirion Ranger and Scryb Ranger each return a Forest you control to your hand to untap one, once a turn each. Aim all three at Brigid with eight other creatures out and she taps four times, for 32 mana. Vitalize does the job once for , and it untaps every mana creature along with her.

The Rangers want Forests, and the land count was set with that in mind. Twelve lands here carry the Forest type: nine basic Forests, Temple Garden, Canopy Vista and Dryad Arbor. Tap the Forest for mana first, send it back, and play it again as your land drop. Dryad Arbor is the odd one out. It is a creature as well as a Forest, so it is one more for Brigid to count, and returning it to your hand takes that one away.

Mirror Entity makes everything as big as her count

Mirror Entity is the finisher, and it is also the only Kithkin creature card in the ninety-nine, because it is a changeling. Its ability costs X and makes every creature you control an X/X until end of turn. Brigid's tap is an X too, so the two cards read one number. With six other creatures out, she taps for six, Mirror Entity spends all six, and six 1/1s attack as 6/6s: thirty six power without a land tapped. With ten it is a hundred. Walking Ballista is the backup when Mirror Entity is gone. It turns the same tap into counters, half of it as it enters and one more for every four mana after that, and each counter is a point of damage to any target.

Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is the green version of the same job. For every creature you control gets +3/+3 and trample, and nothing stops you activating it again. Sixteen green is three activations, and on top of Mirror Entity it stacks, because one sets the base size and the other adds to it.

That sets the turn the deck wins on. A flip back to Clachan's Heart spends her mana in the first main phase, before any attacker exists. So if she starts the winning turn on Doun's Mind, do not pay the white. Attack with everything else, wait for blocks, then tap her. Every chump block has already been chosen by the time the size arrives.

One color per tap, and white is the tight one

Each tap is X green or X white, never a mix, so the mana sinks in this list either take any mana or come in matched pairs. Mirror Entity and Walking Ballista take whatever she makes. Selesnya Guildmage has one ability for each of her colors, a Saproling for and a team pump for . Jade Mage takes green for Saprolings, and Clachan Festival takes white for Kithkin at each, so a big tap has a home whichever color she makes.

The list carries 33 green sources and 27 white, and white is where the mana reads short. Double white by turn three arrives 76% of the time against a 90% target. Of the cards asking for it, though, only Adeline, Resplendent Cathar costs three. Cloudgoat Ranger costs five, Elspeth, Sun's Champion six, and Decree of Justice and March of the Multitudes are X spells, so by the time any of those is cast, Brigid is the one paying for it in white. Double green by turn three is 87%, and the three-drops that want it are Champion of Lambholt and Circle of Dreams Druid, which asks for a third green on top.

The core list

Brigid and ninety-nine cards for $531, with every card bought at the cheapest paper printing it has. Seedborn Muse, Aura Shards and Teferi's Protection are its three Game Changers, which puts it at bracket 3. Hover any card name to see the card.

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Cheaper turns it into a Kithkin deck, and bracket 4 adds the Cradle it copies

The budget rung costs $219 and carries no Game Changers. It cuts the three in the core, both token doublers, The Great Henge, Green Sun's Zenith, Finale of Devastation, Delighted Halfling and Wooded Bastion, and it spends what that saves on the Kithkin of Lorwyn. That changes how the deck wins. The core list stacks creatures until one Brigid tap is enormous, then ends the game in a single Mirror Entity turn. The budget list grows more slowly, so it gets more out of each body. Wizened Cenn and Champion of the Clachan give your other Kithkin +1/+1, and every token Brigid, Clachan Festival, Cloudgoat Ranger and Militia's Pride make is a Kithkin. Thoughtweft Lieutenant gives a creature +1/+1 and trample whenever one of them enters. Patrol Signaler makes a Kithkin each time you untap it for , and every convoke spell in the list taps it for you. The result wants to attack sooner and wins with smaller numbers, which suits a bracket 2 table.

One warning about Champion of the Clachan: it asks you to exile a Kithkin as you cast it. Exile a card from your hand rather than a token, because the card comes back to your hand when the Champion leaves, and a token in exile is simply gone.

The bracket 4 rung costs $2,298, and $1,626 of that is one land. Gaea's Cradle is the card Doun's Mind copies, and here it is one more Brigid that no creature removal can touch. The card that changes the most costs three: Umbral Mantle. Equipped to Brigid, it lets her pay three and untap for +2/+2. With four other creatures she taps for four, three of that untaps her, and she taps again, one mana richer each time, as often as you like. Circle of Dreams Druid does the same with three other creatures beside it. That is an infinite combo built from the commander and one card, which is the reason it lives on this rung and not in the core. Once it is running, every mana sink in the ninety-nine ends the game on the spot, from Walking Ballista to Clachan Festival to Kamahl.

Sword of the Paruns is a second copy of the loop at per untap, and Stoneforge Mystic and Enlightened Tutor find whichever piece is missing. Worldly Tutor and Natural Order find Craterhoof Behemoth. The rung carries seven Game Changers, and to make room it cuts the token makers at five mana and up, Collective Unconscious and Decree of Justice, among others.

FAQ

Can Brigid pay the white mana to transform back with her own ability?

Yes. The trigger asks for a mana payment as it resolves, and you can activate mana abilities while you make one. Tap her for X white, pay one of it, and the rest stays in your pool for the rest of that main phase. She transforms to Brigid, Clachan's Heart and makes her Kithkin on the way.

Does Brigid, Doun's Mind need haste to tap for mana?

No. Brigid always enters as Brigid, Clachan's Heart, which has no mana ability, and she can only transform at the beginning of your first main phase. Unless she entered earlier that same turn, she has been under your control since the turn began, so the back face can tap straight away.

What bracket is the Brigid, Clachan's Heart deck on this page, and what does it cost?

Bracket 3, set by its three Game Changers: Seedborn Muse, Aura Shards and Teferi's Protection. At the cheapest printing of each card it costs $531. The budget rung drops all three Game Changers and comes to $219, and the bracket 4 rung is $2,298, of which Gaea's Cradle alone is $1,626.

Does Brigid count herself for her mana ability?

No. X is the number of other creatures you control. Tokens count as soon as they enter, before they could tap or attack. Circle of Dreams Druid, which this list also runs, makes the same kind of mana and does count itself.

Is Brigid, Clachan's Heart a Kithkin typal commander?

Only partly. Her tokens are Kithkin, and so are the ones Clachan Festival, Cloudgoat Ranger and Militia's Pride make, but her mana counts every creature you control, whatever its type. The core list here runs one Kithkin creature card, Mirror Entity, and takes the rest of its creatures from wherever the mana and the tokens are best. The budget rung is the more Kithkin version, with Wizened Cenn, Champion of the Clachan and Thoughtweft Lieutenant.

Does Brigid go infinite?

With Umbral Mantle and at least four other creatures, yes. Each tap makes four or more mana, the Mantle untaps her for three, and the spare mana grows by at least one every loop. Sword of the Paruns does the same. Both sit on this page's bracket 4 rung, because the commander plus one three-mana artifact can be assembled early, which is what bracket 3 asks a deck not to do.