Pramikon, Sky RampartPramikon, Sky Rampart | Art by Richard Wright

Greetings and salutations, my pillowforting brewers, and welcome to a new From the Brim to the Trim. I'm Arnaud, and I'm sleepily happy to take you a journey into doziness, soothing calm, and merciful sleep.

Last time, we parted ways with the usual poll. Let's cut the chase. These are the results:

1. Pramikon, Sky RampartPramikon, Sky Rampart: 76 votes (37%)
2. General Ferrous RokiricGeneral Ferrous Rokiric: 68 votes (33%)
3. Tivash, Gloom SummonerTivash, Gloom Summoner: 64 votes (31%)

Before moving on to the actual brew, I have to say I'm very happy with this poll. It's been a really long time since I last saw such close results. So much so that I'm very tempted to do all three in succession. So barring any wall of roasting in the comments, expect the next articles to be already set in stone. This will leave me room to ask you a couple of questions regarding the future Trims.

Enough with this, let's move on to today's featured guest.

Fun fact: of all the commanders that came out in the 2019 precons, this was the one that caught my eye immediately. I'm usually not a fan of control decks, but being able to decide if and how combat happens sounded hilarious in my head. One brew later, and it had turned into an oppressive control machine, one that I ended up dismantling a few months later.

In a nutshell, Pramikon says "players can only attack the player at their left" or "players can only attack the player at their right". So for all intents and purposes, you have to deal with a single threat, instead of a potential three. There are quite a lot of ways to build this deck. You can create a controlling monstrosity, you can goad, you can make a deck full of political quandaries, or even go full-on with Walls.

Before deciding anything, let's first grab each and every card from Pramikon's page, with both the regular and budget options.

354 cards. A good start.

First Trim – There Is No Bling in Ba Sing Se

For those of you reading this series for the first time, a warm welcome. The idea behind any given Trim is rather simple: devise a budget deck with no card worth $1.11 and more at the time of writing. The intended power level is Bracket 2 to low-3.

There is a lot to love in a budget deck:

• It doesn't hurt your wallet too much, as the final results usually end up in the $30-$45 range.
• It forces you out of your comfort zone, as you usually can't rely on major staples.
• It's extremely gratifying to crush a millionaire with what some would consider draft chaff.

With all this in mind, let's begin by cutting each and every card above the $2 range.

Before getting rid of the rest, let's take a look at the best options worth between $1.11-$2:

• Spectacular ShowdownSpectacular Showdown: The more I play this card, the more fun I have seeing my opponents tear each other apart.
• Grand MeleeGrand Melee: Goes hand in hand with the Showdown.
• Essence FluxEssence Flux: One of my favourite blink spells, a boon in this brew.
• Crystal BarricadeCrystal Barricade: Giving you hexproof turns off a surprisingly large number of nasty effects, and I'll never say no to saving my board from a Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act.
• Karmic JusticeKarmic Justice: Your removal? No, our removal.
• Reins of PowerReins of Power: That's one fantastic finisher off the tab...
• Elspeth, Sun's ChampionElspeth, Sun's Champion: Blockers for days, and a repeatable board wipe. It's a great card, period.
• SoulherderSoulherder: Most repeatable blink effects don't come cheap sadly.
• FlumphFlumph: An underplayed political tool. It can net you a serious number of cards.

This leaves nine cards in the $1.00-$1.10 range:

• Ghostly FlickerGhostly Flicker: One of my favourite blinkers, period.
• Perimeter CaptainPerimeter Captain: A cheap lifegain outlet, though I'm still not sure there will be enough defenders to justify its use.
• UnwindUnwind: Free counterspell, don't mind if I do.
• Chromatic LanternChromatic Lantern: Voids any colored mana problems. Still a staple, although an ageing one.
• Inexorable TideInexorable Tide: Sounds like someone was thinking Superfriends when adding this.
• Mystic SanctuaryMystic Sanctuary: Precons have brought the price down. Get yours while it's dirt cheap, it won't stay that way for long.
• Fabled PassageFabled Passage: Same. An excellent fixer.
• Rolling StonesRolling Stones: Fun, but requires support to bring in the pain.

Down to 212 cards, right in the average. I like where this is going. Let's press on.

Second Trim – Even Walls Need Their Veggies

This is one of those tricky decks, where even the veggies can impact the direction of the deck. For those of you new to deckbuilding, these include draw, ramp, removal, board wipes and protection.

First, let's have a look at the stats:

I feel like this deck will require a decent draw package. Since you will inevitably draw attention, not by being a threat, but by being nigh untouchable, you need to make sure your hand contains adequate responses.

I will keep ramp reasonable, at around a 12-ish range. You're likely to stay quiet and silent in the first half of the game, merely diverting attention from yourself. As such, while consistent land drops are essential – I'm going with 37 here – you don't need to race for the finish.

Removal is a hard one. You don't really need to remove all threats, just to make sure they go another way. So I'm going to cut most of it, keeping only the best.

Protection is another issue altogether. You need to keep your commander alive, and cheap blink spells will usually do that effectively, in addition to giving you the option to change the order of attacks. There are also several ways to deter people from attacking you altogether.

Let's pillowfort.

With a solid makeover of the land base, the list now accounts for a solid 149 cards. Time to move on to the fun part.

Third Trim – You Shall Not Pass!!!

Dear old Gandalf has wonderfully summed up the basic strategy. This deck wants you to control the pace of the game. If your opponents want to slaughter each other, that's perfectly fine. As long as they don't even glance your way.

Except... they will. They most definitely will glance your way once your field is packed with all sorts of protection and deterrents. Expect your commander to be target ad nauseam, before seeing the table ganging up on you. Expect board wipes for your puny walls. Expect rage, and hatred, and...

Ok, I might have gone a little overboard here. But the point stands. By doing nothing, by slowing the game, you will attract unwanted attention. So be prepared to respond accordingly.

Now, how do you win here?

As you may have already observed in the previous section, I've cut most of the remaining planeswalkers. There simply isn't enough material here to make a viable Superfriends deck. This leaves basically Walls, and forced combat.

Therefore the core idea is to let your opponents tear each other apart, then pick up the pieces.

At the moment this what's left to sort out:

• A plethora of Walls in this list, and I'm considering keeping only the most relevant ones. It's rather unlikely you will be able to use them in combat anyway. They're here more to ensure your life remains high and healthy.
• A lot of Blink effects. I want to keep most of them, to make sure your key pieces remain around.
• A few pump effects, that seem slightly out of place and rather lackluster, for the most part.
• Forced combat outlets, both efficient fun.
• Fun finishers, rather on theme.
• An a bunch of rather unclassifiable thingamajigs.

I'm rather tempted to add a couple of specific cards, but more on that in a minute. In the meantime, let's cut.

Aaaaand, down to 110. Let's continue to the final 10... or maybe more.

Final Trim – The Grand Overhaul

So.

I may or may not have a problem. There are currently 16 creatures with defender in the deck. Truth to be told, that seems rather low for them to be a serious threat. So I'm going to let go of most of what's left altogether. Anything that doesn't have an effect on the field will be cut.

I hinted before that I felt like adding a few outlets here and there. Well, I'm going to do more than that. Let's change the wincons altogether. I want to leverage Pramikon's ability to mitigate damage to open the way to other sorts of Finishers.

Enter retaliation spells. Pramikon already looks like a giant blaze in the sky, so I want to fully embody that threat. You play with fire, you get burned.

But first, let's cut:

• High AlertHigh Alert, Perimeter CaptainPerimeter Captain, and Rasaad yn BashirRasaad yn Bashir: Lovely cards, but in these circumstances they becomes useless.
• Wall of ReverenceWall of Reverence, Wall of GlareWall of Glare, Hover BarrierHover Barrier, Steel WallSteel Wall, Glacial WallGlacial Wall, Steel WallSteel Wall, Wall of DustWall of Dust: No reason to keep these lugs anymore.
• Wall of OmensWall of Omens: More likely to be a one-of effect.
• Court of IreCourt of Ire: The effect is great. But if someone nabs the Monarch from you, there's little hope to get it back.
• Secret RendezvousSecret Rendezvous: Not exactly a cut, as I'm replacing it with Sphinx's RevelationSphinx's Revelation, a great end-step draw outlet.
• Mnemonic WallMnemonic Wall and Archaeomancer: I'm running out of ideas and they're rather expensive, mana-wise.
• Stroke of MidnightStroke of Midnight: Still even fewer ideas now, if I'm down to cutting removal (shame, shame!)

It's been a while since I last had such difficulty.

Now to the fun part.

I'm adding the following:

• Boros ReckonerBoros Reckoner
• Pain for AllPain for All
• SpitemareSpitemare
• Truefire CaptainTruefire Captain

These all share the same idea: you hit me? I hit you. And since you're likely to enforce combat at some point or the other, these creatures will indeed trigger.

Ideal? Probably not. Fun? I certainly hope so.

All this leads to...

Additional Trim – A Look Into the Past

Today, we're taking a look at how my build of Coram, the Undertaker held up, in terms of price. And well.........

Well bless my mana... I don't think there's been any past Trim that has fared this well insofar. There are only three cards that have risen above the $1.11 threshold, none of which to sky heights:

• Daemogoth TitanDaemogoth Titan: $1.36
• Yargle and MultaniYargle and Multani: $1.47
• Mage SlayerMage Slayer: $1.76

Honestly, this isn't far from being pristine. Let's find some suitable replacements:

• AngerAnger: Reprinted in the recent precon wave. Get yours while it's dirt cheap, it's an insane outlet in any red creature-based deck.
• Lord of ExtinctionLord of Extinction: It will be big, trust me.
• Assassin's TrophyAssassin's Trophy: Can't go wrong with more removal.

You can fine the updated list here.

Conclusion

This was a rather different take from usual. I have little love for control heavy decks. I hope this was a decent attempt at making one somewhat playable!

I look forward to hearing from you on this one. And don't forget to vote in the poll.

See you in two weeks with my good friend Tivash, Gloom SummonerTivash, Gloom Summoner!

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