Sek'Kuar, DeathkeeperSek'Kuar, Deathkeeper | Art by Jeff Miracola

Greetings and salutations everyone, and welcome to my last brew of 2025. It's potent, it's heady, it's meme-y, it's Sek'kuar!

I know, I know. Usually I take into account the results of the last poll to determine the next victim. However, this isn't a regular Trim, it's the end of the year, so I'm trying something a bit different, foregoing the budget in favor of silliness, while still trying to keep it affordable.

A while back, I had a conversation with my fellow writers about the difficulty of devising and playing a true Bracket 1 deck.

In my opinion, said difficulty does not lies so much within the brewing process as it does finding vict... erm players who share a similar vision and have decided to embrace the concept.

In other words: most people will confuse Bracket 1 and 2, and fail to see the grand picture.

I strongly believe that a B1 deck must embody a weird concept and embrace it to the very end, even if that means playing suboptimally – spoiler alert, it usually does. However, this doesn't mean it will stand there doing nothing relevant to the actual game.

Joey Schulz's "Commander" commander deck is an excellent example.

Given that this is the very end of the year, I decided to go with something (hopefully) equally silly. This is the 31^st, let's focus on these digits. Here are the rules I'm establishing for this brew:

• Each and every creature in the deck must be a 3/1.
• Aside from the commander and said creatures, each and every spell must cost either one or three mana.

And to helm this deck, I'm choosing Sek'Kuar, DeathkeeperSek'Kuar, Deathkeeper. I believe he perfectly fits the bill, since:

• He creates 3/1s.
• He makes new stuff with dying stuff, embodying the concept of the passing of time, leaving old stuff behind to embrace the new. Ok, this one is a bit far-fetched.

With those rules firmly set in place, let's start the brew.

First Ingredient – A Batch of Creatures

Let's begin with the meat and bones of the deck, the 3/1s.

A quick search on Scryfall provides around 170-ish creatures costing at most three mana that fit the constraints. That's way, way too many, but it's still good news. It means there's a plethora of good stuff to pick from.

Since this deck will rely strongly on these critters, I'd like to play around 30 of those, to make sure there's enough gas. You know what? Let's make that 31 to stick to the theme.

Here are creatures I would retain for the build. But bear in mind this is all purely arbitrary, and that your selection would be equally valid! In the end, it's all a matter of personal taste.

There, 31 cards exactly. I'm actually rather surprised at the sheer quality of most of them.

For the sake of completeness, I suppose I could have extended the selection to include 1/3s as well. Harmonic ProdigyHarmonic Prodigy would have been a great inclusion for instance.

But that illustrates one of the greatest joys of such builds: stick to the plan. The moment you start making exceptions is when it all starts to unravel.

Onwards to the next section.

Second Ingredient – A Basket of Veggies

This one should be rather straightforward. Luckily, there's no lack of outlets worth one or three mana, especially in these colors. And the commander's ability synergises quite well with a lot of sac-to-draw spells.

Since the curve should remain relatively low, I believe 10-12 ramp spells should be enough.

I'm always fond of having several solutions to refill my hand, so I'll aim at the 12-14 sweet spot there.

Removal has already been somewhat covered by creatures, but a couple more couldn't hurt.

And I'll stick to a single board wipe, since there aren't that many costing at most three mana.

Remember: no cards can cost anything other than one or three mana!

Much, much better. 14 spells that draw cards in one way or the other, 12 ramp, 6 removal altogether to fend off threats... This is looking ready to partaaaaaaaaaay!

Well, almost. Let's put the finishing touches.

Last Ingredient – Grounds and Toppings

First off, the land base. No need to get fancy here. Given the low curve, I feel like playing 36-37 should be more than enough. A bunch of basics and a few cheap double-colored outlets should do the trick.

Let's forego that for now (you'll see the full mana base in the final list anyway) to focus on the few remaining available slots.

I'm adding the following to the mix:

• Bastion of RemembranceBastion of Remembrance: Creatures will die, might as well benefit from that.
• Beastmaster AscensionBeastmaster Ascension: Suddenly those puny 3/1s turn into huge monsters.
• Blight MoundBlight Mound: More creatures, mooooooooooooore!
• Crown of DoomCrown of Doom: An underrated pump. At best it hastens someone's demise. At worst it forces them to keep some mana up to pass the hot potato around.
• Golgari GerminationGolgari Germination: Same as for Blight MoundBlight Mound.
• Phyrexian ReclamationPhyrexian Reclamation: Fantastic way to recur annoying threats.
• Rhythm of the WildRhythm of the Wild and Fires of YavimayaFires of Yavimaya: Pump or haste, depending on your needs.
• VictimizeVictimize and UnearthUnearth: Thought they were gone for good? Think again.

Without further ado, I give you...

This leads to a brew just short of $100. Note that $57 of those are comprised in just five cards:

• Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar: $5.99
• Toxic DelugeToxic Deluge: $6.31
• Black Market ConnectionsBlack Market Connections: $11.58
• Indoraptor, the Perfect HybridIndoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid: $12.55
• Bitterthorn, Nissa's AnimusBitterthorn, Nissa's Animus: $20.18

It would therefore be quite easy to bring the list in the $40-$50 range by replacing these with cheaper alternatives.

Conclusion

This was a fun journey! I hope you had as much fun following it as I did setting it up.

As the year concludes, I'd like to express once more my utmost gratitude to all of you, who take the time to read through these articles, vote and comment.

It's been a wild ride, and we're just getting started.

Happy New Year!