Bryce: Crescent City reskin

Overview

This is your Crescent City deck. Your commander is Bryce Quinlan (Starborn) (the card underneath is Kaalia of the Vast, so that's the name opponents will use). Bryce starts every game in your command zone — a special zone off to the side that only commanders live in. You can cast her from there any time you could cast a creature, and if she dies she goes right back, ready to be cast again for two extra mana each time (that's "commander tax"). You never have to draw her, and you never really lose her.

Bryce's whole job is one line of text: whenever she attacks an opponent, you may put an Angel, Demon, or Dragon from your hand onto the battlefield — free — tapped and attacking that same opponent. The deck is stacked with 21 of the biggest, splashiest Angels, Demons, and Dragons in the game, most of which cost six, seven, or eight mana to cast honestly. You will almost never pay those prices. Bryce smuggles them into combat for free, one per attack, every turn.

You win by hitting people with enormous flying monsters, and the deck backs that up with two slower "just in case" finishes: piling up ten Treasure tokens (Revel in Riches) and a life total that refuses to stay down.

Mulligan Guide

A "mulligan" here just means: if your opening seven can't do its job, shuffle it back and draw a new seven (then put one card on the bottom). Don't be shy — this deck mulligans well because Bryce is always waiting in the command zone.

Keep a hand with all three of these:

• 3+ lands (or 2 lands plus a 2-mana rock like a Signet or Talisman)
• White or black early plays — you want Bryce on turn 3 (she costs ), so hands that can't make all three colors by then are risky
• At least one Angel, Demon, or Dragon you'd be excited to drop for free

Bonus points for: The Horn / Swiftfoot Boots, Reconnaissance, or a cheap protection spell to keep Bryce alive.

Ship it back if: one land, five lands and nothing to do, or a hand of nothing but 7-drops with no way to cast Bryce on time.

Game Plan

Turns 1–2: set the table. Play lands, play a mana rock (Sol Ring, Signets, Talismans), play The Horn or Swiftfoot Boots so it's waiting for Bryce. Mother of Runes and Righteous Valkyrie are great early creatures too.

Turn 3 (or 2 with Sol Ring): Bryce — but only dressed. Golden rule 2: cast her when you can attach The Horn or the Boots the same turn (with haste she attacks right away), or when you're holding protection for her. If neither is true, spend the turn on setup instead — a turn-4 Bryce who lives beats a turn-3 Bryce who dies.

Turn 4 onward: attack every turn. Point Bryce at whoever is scariest (or whoever is open) and drop a monster from your hand — free, tapped, and attacking alongside her. Your first drops should usually be:

• Hunt Athalar (Umbra Mortis) (Aurelia, the Warleader) — but cast him, don't drop him when you can afford it; see the trap in the next section.
• Aidas, Prince of the Chasm (Rune-Scarred Demon) — when he enters, you search your deck for any card and put it in your hand. Free 7-drop, free tutor.
• Ruhn Danaan (Lord of the Void) — when he hits a player, you exile their top seven cards and steal a creature from among them.
• Ancient Gold Dragon / Ancient Copper Dragon — the d20 dragons. When they connect, you roll a twenty-sided die and get that many Faerie Dragons (Gold) or Treasures (Copper).
• Apollion, Prince of the Pit (Vilis, Broker of Blood) — every point of life you lose becomes cards. Pairs beautifully with this deck's many pay-life cards.
• Angel of Despair and Angel of Sanctions — removal on wings. Despair destroys any permanent when she enters; Sanctions exiles a problem nonland permanent for as long as she sticks around (and she can come back from your graveyard later as a token copy — that's her "embalm" ability). Drop one when the board has a problem, not just when you want damage.

Whoever you're NOT attacking still needs watching. Your removal suite (Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Anguished Unmaking, Despark, Mortify, Bitter Triumph, Crackling Doom, Deadly Rollick) answers the scariest thing on each board — spend it on whatever would kill you or Bryce, not on small stuff.

Need exactly the right card? Demonic Tutor searches your deck for any card and puts it in your hand — the answer, the finisher, whatever the game demands. Aidas does the same for free when Bryce drops him. Early game the right find is usually Reconnaissance or Smothering Tithe; late game it's Akroma's Will or "Light It Up."

Running low on cards? That's normal — you're dumping monsters for free. Refuel with Wheel of Fortune (everyone shuffles their hand away and draws seven — and if Smothering Tithe is out, their seven draws become your Treasures), Painful Truths, Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, Phyrexian Arena, and Bloodgift Demon. Apollion turns every life payment into cards.

Closing the game: an Akroma's Will with Bryce on the battlefield gives your whole team double strike AND flying (they hit twice, over blockers) or lifelink + indestructible — it routinely ends games on the spot. "Light It Up" (Ruinous Ultimatum) destroys everything your opponents own except lands and leaves your board untouched — the biggest single swing in the deck. "The Bone Quarter Opens" (Rise of the Dark Realms) takes every creature from every graveyard — including your opponents' — and puts them all onto the battlefield under your control.

How Bryce actually works

Bryce's drop is the deck's engine, and it has real rules texture. The essentials:

• The trigger happens when you declare her as an attacker — before anyone blocks, before any damage. You pick the monster from your hand at that moment, and it enters tapped and attacking the same opponent Bryce is attacking.
• The dropped monster ignores summoning sickness. It isn't declared as an attacker — it's put in already attacking — and the "can't attack the turn it arrives" rule only checks declarations. Fresh from your hand, straight into the red zone.
• It even ignores "can't attack" effects. Cards like Propaganda that tax attackers only tax declared attackers. Bryce's drop slips right past.
• THE BIG TRAP: "whenever this creature attacks" abilities do NOT trigger on a dropped creature. Same reason as above — it was never declared as an attacker, so "attacks" triggers never see it. This matters for exactly two cards here:
  • Hunt Athalar (Aurelia): his extra combat reads "whenever Aurelia attacks." Dropped in by Bryce → no extra combat. He's just a 3/4 flier. Cast him with mana instead — he has haste, attacks immediately, untaps your whole team, and gives you a second combat (in which Bryce attacks again and drops another monster). This is the deck's best explosive turn.
  • Goldspan Dragon: "whenever this creature attacks... create a Treasure" — dropped in, no Treasure on the way in. Still completely fine to drop (he makes a Treasure whenever anyone targets him, and his Treasures are worth two mana each), just don't count on the attack Treasure that first swing.
• "Deals combat damage" abilities DO work on dropped creatures. Damage is damage, however the creature got into combat. Ruhn Danaan, the d20 dragons, Balefire Dragon, and Hellkite Tyrant all pay off in full when dropped.
• One quiet bonus: dropping a big Angel while Terror of the Peaks is out deals that Angel's power in damage to any target — the drop itself becomes a removal spell or a chunk of someone's face.

Key Loops & Interactions

Reconnaissance — use it every combat

Combat happens in steps, in order: declare attackers → declare blockers → combat damage → end of combat. Reconnaissance can act at any of them, free, as many times as you want. Two ways to use it:

The every-turn play (pseudo-vigilance): attack with everyone. After combat damage is dealt — during the end of combat step, before the turn moves on — say "I activate Reconnaissance on each of my attackers." Each one is removed from combat and untapped. They already dealt their damage (this is printed right on the card), and now they're untapped and ready to block on everyone else's turn. You attack with your whole board every turn at zero risk of being left defenseless. Do this every combat.

The rescue (before blocks): if you attack and someone reveals a nasty surprise — a huge blocker, a "destroy target attacking creature" spell — you can pull Bryce (or anyone) out of combat before blockers are declared. She deals no damage that turn, but she lives, untapped. One order note: her drop trigger happens at declare-attackers, so the monster is already in play even if you pull her out afterward.

Protection: the two lines to know

Bryce is the engine, so people will try to kill her. You have many defensive cards, but you only need to master two habits:

1. Suit her up. The Horn (Lightning Greaves) or Swiftfoot Boots make her untargetable (opponents' kill spells simply can't choose her) and hasty. The Starsword (Mithril Coat) has flash — you can cast it in the middle of an opponent's turn, and it attaches itself to Bryce for free — making her indestructible: "destroy" effects and damage can't kill her. Boots + Starsword on Bryce and she is very close to unkillable.
2. "Making the Drop" (Teferi's Protection) is your panic button — and it's widely considered one of the best defensive cards ever printed. Cast it in response to trouble and two things happen until your next turn: your life total can't change, and every permanent you own vanishes (phases out — the game pretends none of it exists). Why that's so good: there is no kind of disaster it doesn't answer. A board wipe? Your creatures aren't there to be wiped. A lethal attack aimed at you? The attackers connect with nothing — your life total literally cannot go down. A spell that would drain your life, kill Bryce, or steal your things? There's nothing to target and no life to take. Most protection spells answer one of those; this answers all of them with one white card, and then your whole board reappears on your turn exactly as it was — equipment still attached, nothing lost. The cost is that you sit out one trip around the table (your vanished creatures can't block, and the card is exiled after — it's once per game). So hold it for the biggest disaster, not the first small one — and when someone at the table asks "why didn't that kill you?", you get to say you made the Drop.

("In response" means: when an opponent casts a spell, it doesn't happen instantly — you get a chance to act first. That's when your instants shine.)

The Treasure line (slow win #1)

Smothering Tithe makes a Treasure every time an opponent draws a card unless they pay — in a four-player game that's piles of free mana. Ancient Copper Dragon mints up to twenty in one hit. Goldspan Dragon makes his Treasures worth double. All of it feeds two payoffs:

• Revel in Riches: if you have ten or more Treasures as your upkeep begins, you win the game on the spot. The catch: your upkeep is the very start of your turn, so you must survive a full round holding ten Treasures — opponents get one last turn each to destroy Revel or make you spend them. (Revel also mints a Treasure whenever an opponent's creature dies — your board wipes become payday.)
• Hellkite Tyrant: when he hits a player you steal every artifact they control (their Sol Ring, their Treasures...), and if you ever control twenty artifacts at your upkeep, you also just win.

The lifegain valve

The deck bleeds life on purpose (shocklands, Phyrexian Arena, Painful Truths, Apollion) and heals it all back:

• Righteous Valkyrie gains you life equal to each entering Angel's toughness — and once you're at 47 or more (7 above your starting 40), your whole team gets +2/+2.
• Resolute Archangel resets you to 40 flat the moment she enters — drop her with Bryce when you're low and erase a game's worth of damage.
• Lyra Dawnbringer, Baneslayer Angel, and Liesa all have lifelink — their damage becomes your life.

The graveyard package

Your monsters dying is a setback, not an ending. Reanimate and Animate Dead return a creature from any graveyard to the battlefield for one or two mana — the cheapest way in the deck to get an 8-drop into play, and they can steal from opponents' graveyards too. Danika Fendyr (Alpha) (Karmic Guide) is both an Angel Bryce can drop and a resurrection: when she enters, she returns a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. Liesa, Forgotten Archangel quietly returns each of your dying creatures to your hand (so Bryce can drop them again) while exiling opponents' dying creatures so they can't do the same. "The Bone Quarter Opens" is the package's grand finale — every creature in every graveyard, all yours.

Sweepers that spare you

Damn overloaded ( side) and Blasphemous Act (13 damage to every creature, and it gets cheaper for every creature on the battlefield — often just ) wipe the board. Two ways to come out ahead: Avacyn, Angel of Hope makes your whole side indestructible permanently, and Flawless Maneuver, Boros Charm, or Lehabah, Fire Sprite (Selfless Spirit — sacrifice her, your creatures are indestructible for the turn) do it for one turn — cast Blasphemous Act, protect your team, keep your monsters while everyone else starts over.

Lidia doubles everything

Lidia Cervos / The Hind (Gisela, Blade of Goldnight) doubles all damage your side deals to opponents and their permanents, and halves what they deal to you. Every attacker hits twice as hard, Boros Charm to the face becomes 8, Blasphemous Act melts their creatures for 26 while yours take half. She is one of your very best Bryce drops in the mid-game.

Combos

Dragon Tempest + Ancient Gold Dragon (primary — the d20 spectacle)

Cards: Dragon Tempest (on the battlefield) + Ancient Gold Dragon connecting with a player → produces: a mountain of direct damage, usually lethal.

Step by step:

1. Get both pieces out. Dragon Tempest is a cheap enchantment — play it early and let it sit. Ancient Gold Dragon usually arrives dropped in free by Bryce, tapped and attacking.
2. Ancient Gold Dragon hits a player. Her combat-damage trigger works fine on a Bryce drop (she skipped the attack declaration, not the damage).
3. Roll the d20 — say a 15 — and create that many 1/1 flying Faerie Dragon tokens, all at once.
4. The tokens are Dragons, so Dragon Tempest triggers once for each: "it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Dragons you control." Fifteen Dragons entered → fifteen separate triggers.
5. Each trigger counts all your Dragons. The tokens all arrived together, so every trigger sees the full board. With Ancient Gold Dragon, one other Dragon, and 15 Faeries, X is 17: fifteen triggers × 17 damage = 255 damage, each one pointed wherever you like — faces, blockers, planeswalkers, split across all three opponents.
6. Bonus: Dragon Tempest's other trigger gives your fliers haste as they enter, so the Faerie swarm can attack the same turn.

Even a low roll usually removes a player; a high roll ends the table.

Common Pitfalls

• Casting Bryce "naked." No haste enabler, no protection held — she's the most killed-on-sight commander in Magic, and every death adds two mana to her next casting. Wait one turn and play her dressed.
• Dropping Hunt Athalar with Bryce. No extra combat that way — cast him. (See "How Bryce actually works.")
• Forgetting Reconnaissance at end of combat. It's free. Every combat, all attackers, untap. Make it a ritual: "damage done — Recon everyone."
• Attacking with Bryce into an empty hand. She's just a 2/2 flier then. If your hand has no monster to drop, consider holding her back and spending the turn refilling.
• Counting on Revel in Riches the turn you hit ten Treasures. The win check happens at the start of your next turn — you have to survive a full round first, and everyone will be gunning for the enchantment.
• Spending "Making the Drop" too early. One board wipe you could survive anyway isn't worth it. Save it for the hit that would take you out of the game.
• Forgetting Ruhn Danaan's steal is mandatory — if there's a creature in the seven exiled cards, you must take one. (A nice problem to have, but occasionally it's a creature with an unfriendly ability — you still have to.)