English Breakfast

Power or originality? The debate you don’t hear often enough when it comes to deck building. This was the question I had to ask myself when it came to writing about today’s list. “Why?” you might ask. Well, the deck actually has a couple of iterations that are quite different. In the end however, I decided to go with the more original build because it uses some engines that I haven’t written about before. And so, without further adieu, let us dive right into an English Breakfast!

The first thing I want to mention is that when played correctly, English Breakfast actually has some deception to it, which you can use to your advantage. In your first couple of turns, people can actually mistake it for a Psychatog deck, a Reanimator deck or even a Merfolk deck. If they think the latter however, then they are probably new to the format, so go easy on them okay?

I mentioned some unique engines in this deck, which I am now going to talk about! The first one is Tortured Existence; a pretty obscure card that has a lot of potential. In fact, Existence can be used both offensively and defensively in the right type of deck (hint: this is the right type of deck). How? When you combine it with the other unique engine/win con of English Breakfast: Volrath’s Shapehifter. Tortured Existence not only helps ensure which creature is on the top of the library for Shapeshifter, but it can also help save them from cards such as Tormod’s Crypt or Cremate.

How does it win? Technically, there are several different ways to win due to all of the 1-ofs in the deck. When it comes down to it however, I would say the main win conditions are Volrath’s Shapeshifter and/or Psychatog in a pinch. If you want to get fancy though – go for the Phage! Shapeshifter on Phage is just an awesome way to win.

The rest of the cards and their strategies should be pretty self explanatory, so I won’t be going into them. I do want to mention that there are lots of different options for Shapeshifter targets however. And there you have it. Quite the deck, eh? One of my favourite things about writing these articles is reading through various deck builds and analyzing the different strategies amongst them. While I decided to write about this version of English Breakfast, that doesn’t mean I won’t write about others in the future. I also encourage everyone to do their own research and find out for themselves’ which version is right for them. Or heck, why not create your own? Happy Brewing!

English Breakfast

Land

4 Polluted Delta

4 Flooded Strand

4 Underground Sea

4 Cephalid Coliseum

4 Underground River

2 Island

1 Swamp

Total: 23

Creatures

4 Hapless Researcher

4 Psychatog

4 Volrath’s Shapeshifter

4 Merfolk Looter

1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

1 Phage the Untouchable

1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

1 Wonder

1 Iridescent Angel

1 Reya Dawnbringer

Total: 22

Spells

4 Tortured Existence

3 Buried Alive

4 Careful Study

4 Brainstorm

Total: 15

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Chain of Vapor

4 Force of Will

3 Innocent Blood