Under the Radar - Breeches, the Blastmaker
August 28, 2024 by
Ben Macready 
(Breeches, the Blastmaker | Art by Dmitry Burmak)
In today's edition of Under the Radar, we're looking at another commander with under 500 decks to their name. Our second goblin in a row, Breeches, the Blastmaker is an Ixalani Pirate, who decided to take an extra-planar road trip out to Thunder Junction to play around with all of the exciting dynamite and explosives that the wild west themed world had to offer. We're going to analyze the strategies that Breeches incentivizes while digging into the card's pretty huge untapped potential. Prepare yourself, because we're going to have a blast!
Breeches of Contract
For , Breeches, the Blastmaker is a 3/3 Goblin Pirate with menace. When you cast your second spell in a given turn, Breeches allows you to sacrifice an artifact in order to flip a coin. If you call the result of that coin flip correctly, then Breeches copies the spell. If you call it incorrectly, Breeches deals damage equal to that spell's mana value to any target. Just a reminder that a "spell" doesn't have to be an instant or a sorcery; any nonland card is a spell while it's on the stack being cast. Breeches is capable of copying anything from a Wurmcoil Engine to a Shark Typhoon. Having said that, it's usually best not to have Breeches copy any legendary creatures, as the Legend Rule will just cause them to immediately die... Unless you're banking on that so you can abuse the powerful death trigger on a card like Keiga, the Tide Star.
The basic strategy that you'll want to commit to with Breeches is using your turn to play one small spell, and then following that up with a big spell for Breeches to either duplicate, if you call the flip right, or to use to fuel a powerful damaging blow, if you call it incorrectly. You'll want your small spell to be something cheap that digs through your deck likeOpt, Brainstorm, or Frantic Search. It also helps to have several small spells that generate artifacts to be sacrificed to Breeches' effect like Prized Statue, Strike It Rich, or Ichor Wellspring. Then you'll want your big spell to be something impactful with a high mana value like Goldspan Dragon,Time Warp, or, if you're feeling particularly devious, Expropriate. This one-two punch strategy is sure to have your opponents reeling in no time.
Once More Unto the Breeches
So all of that sounds pretty fun, but just why was Breeches, the Blastmaker passed over?
The card may have simply been lost amongst the noise. There are a lot of potential options for Commanders out there. Outlaws of Thunder Junction alone contained 43 new Commanders, along with a further 8 in the Commander decks that were released alongside the set. Players fell in love with the meteor-flinging feline Roxanne, Starfall Savant, and the unique time-looping ogre Obeka, Splitter of Seconds, this poor little Goblin Pirate got left in the dust.
Breeches, the Blastmaker is also a pretty wordy card. The infamously text-heavy Questing Beast only has 48 total words of rules text, but the big paragraph that occupies most of Breeches' text box contains just over 50 words. It's possible that people's eyes simply glazed over reading all of this. Players possibly just saw the phrase "lose the flip" and assumed that Breeches would have a 50% chance of imposing some sort of disruptive downside on them and didn't want to roll those dice. In fact, Breeches' effect is pretty great, whether you call the flip right or wrong. Now, let's take a spin through Breeches' average deck list.
Breaches' Average Deck
As of 08/20/2024 there are currently 362 Breeches, the Blastmaker decks on EDHREC. If we use the EDHREC average deck feature to produce a sample Breeches deck, it gives us this...
Breeches, the Blastmaker - Average Deck
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The first thing you'll notice about this deck is that it's Spellslinger. Now Breeches, the Blastmaker absolutely doesn't have to be built as a commander that cares about instants and sorceries. In many ways, going for an artifact build makes a bit more sense, since it will provide you with lots of fodder to sacrifice to activate Breeches' effect. Nevertheless, since this average list is a Spellslinger deck, the deck we prepare here will also be one.
We've talked about how the strategy for Breeches works best as a one-two punch . You use a small spell, to prepare the ground and then you cast a big spell for Breeches to duplicate or to damage the opponent with. While this current build has plenty of small spells, its selection of big spells is pretty lacking. We'll look into fixing this in our "card to add section".
Budget-conscious players will also find plenty of cuts to make to this list. While the idea of using Breeches to make two copies of Rhystic Study is frankly hilarious, removing the card from the deck will save you $40. Jeska's Will is also a very powerful spell and is one of the best cards you can use to queue up a powerful second spell for Breeches. Whether the power Jeska's Will provides is worth $20 is up to you to determine. Finally cut the Steam Vents and theTraining Center from your land base and you will save yourself about $30.
Now let's get into things and start talking about modifying this list. All of the usage stats provided below were gathered on 08/20/2024.
Five Cards to Keep
Currently in 82% of decks.
Breeches and Malcolm have been best buddies since they debuted together in Commander Legends in 2020 as Breeches, Brazen Plunderer and Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator. Given that these two new printings of Breeches and Malcolm were released in the same color pair and the same set, they were clearly designed to be played together. When you cast your second spell, Malcolm, the Eyes spits out a clue token ready to be sacrificed to Breeches' effect. Malcolm ensures that his Goblin Pirate pal will always have something available to sacrifice so that his effect is always able to be activated. Malcolm also provides a decent 2/2 stat line with haste and flying for only two mana. The cards Storm-Kiln Artist and Trail of Evidence are also in the deck and serve a similar purpose in ensuring that you'll always have artifacts ready to sac.
Currently in 33% of decks.
Big spells decks always benefit from having huge amounts of mana available and Brass's Bounty provides mana by the boatload. If you cast this as your second spell on turn 8 (you won't be able to cast this as your second spell on curve without some zero mana Ornithopter shenanigans) then you'll either create 16 treasure tokens or 8 tokens, whilst also dealing a respectable 8 damage to any target. The treasures generated by Brass's Bounty can used to fuel even more powerful spells on later turns, as well as being valid targets to sacrifice to enable Breeches' effect.
Currently in 40% of decks.
Although Jeska's Will is pretty pricy, it is rightly regarded as one of the best red sorceries in Commander. It's first effect gives you access to the top three cards of your deck, hopefully turning over something cool for you to cast, and its second effect gives you plenty of red mana to spend on that spell. Make use of this card if you've got one around, or if you feel that you can afford it.
Treasure Cruise is currently in 38% of decks.
Dig Through Time is currently in 41% of decks.
Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are both high mana value card draw spells that can be cheated out cheaply. Both of these cards have a mana value of 8, but you'll never actually be spending that much to cast them. Delve means that their cost can be discounted by per card that you exile from your graveyard as you cast them. This only reduces the mana that you pay, however, and you'll still be dealing a hefty 8 damage if you call Breeches' flip wrong. So you'll either be loading your hand up with huge numbers of cards, or drawing several cards while also dishing out some big damage. Both of those scenarios seem pretty sweet.
Five Cards to Cut
Currently in 29% of decks.
Just because our commander flips coins, it doesn't mean any other cards in our deck need to care about coin tosses. While Krark, the Thumbless does add some coin-flipping chaos, he has just as much potential to bring your plans to a grinding halt, as he does to pull off anything useful. Krark, the Thumbless either duplicates instants and sorceries you cast or bounces them impotently back to your hand, depending on whether you call the flip accurately or not. On a good day, when you correctly call both Krark and Breeches' coin flips, then all of your big spells will resolve 3 times to devastating effect. On a bad day, when you lose both your flips, your big spell will get chucked back into your hand, and you'll only have a bit of damage to show for it, as your game plans are set back a turn. Cut Krark, but you can keep Krark's Thumb around.
Currently in 30% of decks.
Stitch in Time is an extra turn spell, and those are notoriously powerful. Why would you possibly want to cut this card? Well while Stitch in Time is a spell that can be hugely strong, it's one of the worst-suited extra turn spells to go in this deck. Just like with Krark, the coin flipping here is a downside. Being one of the cheapest extra turn spells in the game is usually a point in Stitch in Time's favor, here though that low mana value works against it. If you call Breeches' flip incorrectly then Stitch in Time only deals 3 damage through Breeches' effect, while other costlier extra turn spells like Karn's Temporal Sundering deal much more. Additionally, if you call Breeches' flip correctly, there is a chance that both of your Stitch in Time's will get called wrong and you'll end up wasting your important second spell slot doing nothing. A Time Warp that gets copied guarantees you two additional turns, a copied Stitch in Time gives you two 50% shots at an extra turn, and there is a huge difference there. Keep Stitch in Time around if you're on a tight budget or you want to go for a more chaotic, coin-flip-focussed build, but otherwise stitch it out of the deck.
Currently in 55% of decks.
Kraum, Violent Cacophony just doesn't synergize with this deck's game plan. The win con here should be our big spells. Whilst a 2/3 flyer that gradually grows is helpful, Breeches will win through a big explosive sequence of spells going off, rather than through combat damage. Similarly, the card draw that Kraum provides is useful, but this deck already has more than enough sources of draw like Opt, Ponder, and Consider. Finally, since Kraum is a legendary creature, Breeches' effect can't create an additional copy of them (or at least not one that will survive). The four mana that you use to cast Kraum would be better spent on something else.
Currently in 49% of decks.
Arguably blue's most iconic card, Counterspell goes well in all sorts of decks, just not this one. Since you'll be using Breeches to duplicate big spells, you'll often be spending all of your mana on your turn and you won't have any left open on your opponents' turns to counter their cards. Theoretically, you could use Counterspell on an opponent's turn and then cast a big instant afterwards, which Breeches would be able to duplicate, but this constrains you quite a lot, as you won't be able to duplicate anything that is played at sorcery speed.
Currently in 38% of decks.
While Malcolm, the Eyes works wonderfully in this deck, his counterpart from Commander Legends Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator does not. Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator generates a treasure token every time one or more pirates you control deal damage to the opponents. Beyond Malcolm and Breeches, there aren't really any pirates in this deck. You also often won't often be attacking with Breeches, he'll mainly be doing damage through his ability. That means that this card has a 50% of generating a treasure token every time Breeches' effect goes off, and even then only when you blast the damage directly at an opponent's face rather than using it to remove one of their creatures. There are other, significantly more efficient, ways of generating treasure tokens in this deck like Big Score and Strike It Rich.
Five Cards to Add
Currently in 6% of decks.
Goblin Electromancer is in the average Breeches deck, and for good reason. Since the deck is based around casting high-cost instants and sorceries, the one mana discount that the electronmancer provides is invaluable in helping you get your game plan going quickly. Thunderclap Drake is a significant upgrade over the Electromancer, and yet it's only in a handful of Breeches builds. The drake provides the same discount on casting spells, but it has a less restrictive mana cost, the ability to attack and block in the air, and the ability to sacrifice itself to copy spells. Since this discount effect is really useful, include Thunderclap Drake but keep Goblin Electromancer around as well. A 2 mana discount is twice as good as a 1 mana discount after all.
Currenlty in 2% of decks.
Earlier when we talked about Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time we established how this deck likes high mana value delve spells. Similarly, when we talked about Stitch in Time we noted how Breeches loves extra turn spells. Temporal Trespass is both of these things. Casting it as your second spell will either grant you two extra turns, or a single extra turn alongside a massive wallop of 11 damage to a target of your choice. Time Stretch is another option that can be considered for an effect like this. While Time Stretch is marginally less practical, since it's missing delve and thus needs to be hard cast for its full 10 mana cost, the ability it provides for you to potentially take four extra turns is completely absurd and can close out games on the spot.
Currently in 22% of decks.
One way to wrap up games with Breeches, the Blastmaker is to sink a huge amount of mana into a big X spell. While an X spell is on the stack, its mana value is equal to the total amount of mana spent to cast it. So when you sink heaps of mana into a card like Fireball, while Breeches is in play, you'll be doling out lots of damage whether the coin comes up heads or tails. As X spells go, Crackle with Power is one of the biggest and best. Cast a Brass's Bounty to get yourself loads of treasure, and then on your next turn sacrifice those treasures into a Crackle with Power which Breeches ability will make even stronger.
Currently in 3% of decks.
Ashling, Flame Dancer provides all sorts of extra utility for this deck. When you cast, or copy, your first instant or sorcery in a turn, Ashling allows you to draw and discard a card. This helps you dig through your deck to find the impactful spells that you need to win. When you get your next instant or sorcery out there, Ashling hits each of your opponents, and all of their creatures, for 2 damage. Finally, Ashling generates when you cast or copy your third spell. With Breeches in play, this ability will trigger if you call the coin flip correctly . While the four extra red mana that Ashling provides comes too late to help you cast your second spell, this card also works like Omnath, Locus of Mana's fiery twin, by allowing you to preserve unspent red mana between turns so you can use it to help get your next big spell out.
Currently in 27% of decks
Mizzix's Mastery has been an invaluable win-con for Spellslinger decks ever since it was first printed in 2015. Breeches can make just as good a use of it as Veyran, Voice of Duality, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, or even Mizzix of the Izmagnus themself. Once the game is drawing towards its end, and your graveyard is loaded up with a bunch of powerful instants and sorceries, getting to cast them all again in one fell swoop can often work as the final push you need to secure victory.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you can now see the chaotic coin-flipping fun that Breeches, the Blastmaker brings to games. What makes this commander interesting to brew around is that there are so many new avenues that the community haven't yet explored. You don't just have to run with the Spellslinger build we have written about in this article. You can build a Breeches deck that cares about cloning big creatures, or one that clones powerful auras and pieces of equipment. Given the colors that Breeches is in, and the fact that you can use his effect to duplicate a ritual spell, he even has the potential to be a powerful Storm commander. Whatever you end up brewing, it's sure to be absolutely explosive.
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Ben Macready
Ben is a freelance writer from the UK. He's has been playing Magic since he was 8 years old, back when he thought Enormous Baloth was the best card in the game. You can find more Magic content from him on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2iSANUGoKzdK6XgLyB1qLw
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