The deck
While Bravos might be playing too fair of a game compared to the other factions, what Basira & Kaizaimon have going for them are mana ramp, Haven, Bravos Bastion (R), and a robust set of commons. This deck tries to double-down on the explosive openings when you can ramp into a position to get maximum value out of your Havens. Bravos Bladedancer (C), Red (C), Ratatoskr (C), and Chiron (C) are staples that make filling out the 21 common slots unusually easy.
Basira is already weak to removal, so I chose not to spend rare slots on upgrading the in-faction boost targets. Instead, I focused on improving the deck’s ramp with Tiny Jinn (R), shoring up Bravos’s lack of card advantage with Bravos Vanguard (R), or both with Mighty Jinn (R).
Bravos also doesn’t have access to great removal themselves, so I’ve included Twinkle, Twinkle as a tempo finisher as well as two uniques with Intimidation effects. This lets me comfortably include just one Intimidation (C) and Mana Eruption (C), whose effects are necessary for some amount of interaction but aren’t cards I’m thrilled about running.
All three of my uniques offer an incredible rate on their effects at the cost of requiring a landmark in play. This cost is minimal for Basira, since Haven, Bravos Bastion (R) will be played every time it’s drawn. Still, three landmarks isn’t enough to consistently trigger their abilities in a timely fashion, so I’ve spent rare slots on two more Kelon Cylinder (R)s, which can trigger Basira’s ability and act as an after you.
Uniques
Kappa: 6/7
Curving a T1 Haven into this on T2 and T3 will win games. Its only drawback is that it’s a reasonably hefty requirement to have drawn and played a landmark alongside this card early enough for the ramp to be at its best.
Three Little Pigs: 6/7
This is Intimidation (R) on a body at an incredible rate, shoring up Bravos’s weakness in the removal department. The fact that it returns to hand rather than discards or sends to reserve is okay since Basira is looking for tempo swings rather than attacking an opponent’s resources.
It’s an arrow effect, so you can get the Intimidation effect twice, or possibly more if you can have this lose fleeting with Helping Hand or Bravos Vanguard. The fact that it hits targets with cost 5 or less means this can answer cards like The Monolith, Ordis Bastion (C). I imagine I’ll usually want to play this out, but if an opponent isn’t offering up any targets, the support ability buy-out grants 2 boosts for free, which is massive.
Bravos Vanguard: 6/7
Very similar to the Three Little Pigs (U) above, only this one exchanges the ability to hit 5-cost objects with the dusk trigger to have another character lose fleeting. Haven decks are very interested in having their characters return to reserve, which puts the Vanguard slightly ahead.
The games
Round 1 (W): Arjun & Spike anchored
My opponent’s start was on the slower side, anchoring a Dracaena (C), then setting up The Spindle, Muna Bastion (R). My aggressive keep of Tiny Jinn (R) + Chiron (C) let me go 4-0 across the first two days thanks to Basira’s ability to rearrange the boosts however I wanted. Meanwhile, my opponent struggled to fuel Arjun’s hero ability in the early game since Dracaena self-anchors and The Spindle is a permanent.
I ramped with another Tiny Jinn (R), but my fast start left me low on cards. My opponent’s well-timed Beauty Sleep (C)s and a Mana Reaping (C) limited my expedition progress in the mid-game and left me with very few cards I could play each turn. I had to stop putting cards into mana earlier than I would have liked, which counteracted my early ramp.
My opponent continued to slow me down by anchoring an Aloe Vera (U) that slept one of my characters at the cost of a card from hand. This Aloe Vera also drew them a card due to being anchored during noon of the following day.
By the time they moved to reanchor the Aloe Vera (U), I had drawn into a permanent which turned on my Three Little Pigs (U). The Intimidation effect swung that day for me, and replaying it on the following day let me close out the game.
Round 2 (L): Afanas & Senka tempo
My opponent led with a Kadigiran Alchemist (C) as the first player, and I immediately regretted keeping an aggressive 1-drop + 2-drop instead of more powerful but expensive rares that would have traded 1-1 just the same.
Drawing into a Helping Hand (C) let me put together a respectable T2 of replaying my Red (C) from reserve and building it up to a 4/4/4 that I could play the following day as well. My opponent had 2 mana up after playing their Sneezer Shroom (F), but they either didn’t have the Off You Go (C) or were content to trade expeditions by playing a character to the other side.
In the mid-game, they got down another Sneezer Shroom (F), ensuring that they always had a boost target active. I was relieved to draw into a Haven, Bravos Bastion (R) after holding onto one of my Intimidation uniques since the start of the game, but my opponent immediately hit the Haven with a Banishing Gate (C). This would be the right move even without my suite of uniques, but due to my reliance on landmarks, it ended up being crippling for me.
A key Off You Go (C) hit a multi-boosted character and let my opponent 2-0 me. I eventually found a Kelon Cylinder (F) to activate my uniques, but my opponent was already several regions ahead and had no trouble securing their final advances.
We played a second game for fun. Despite seeing all three Havens in my opening hand, Afanas was still able to clinch the game in tiebreakers. I comboed a Bravos Vanguard (R) with my Bravos Vanguard (U) to force them to replay their Sneezer Shroom (F) twice, but my opponent was able to sabotage one of the Vanguards to stop them from recurring each other.
Several other sabotages and removal spells of their hit important characters, which limited how much value I could get out of my double-Haven.
Round 3 (W): Sigismar & Wingspan aggro
My opponent contested my hero-side Red by bolstering their Ordis Recruit with a Foundry Mechanic (F), but they didn’t count on me having another Ratatoskr (C) to play to the same expedition. This meant their follow-up Frog Prince (C) could at best go 1-1, whereas playing the Mechanic to the opposite expedition would have put me down 1-2.
My favorably-placed Mighty Jinn (R) ended up being a problem for my opponent, as they had to dedicate a Kelon Burst (F), then a Sticky Note Seals (C) to remove it. Meanwhile, I got to draw, then ramp.
By the late-game, I hadn’t seen a single permanent, so I had to put my Bravos Vanguard (U) into mana and play out my Three Little Pigs (U) for stats.
My mana advantage was important this game, as it allowed me to slow-roll my boost placement on two turns when it really made a difference. On the penultimate turn, I was going 1-2 with a face-up Chiron (C) in reserve, but no matter where my opponent placed their final character, the Chiron boost in combination with the Basira boost let me flip the day into a 2-0 in my favor.
On the last day, I finally drew into a Haven. I was already ahead at 1/3, but resupplying into Atlas (R) with two characters in reserve clinched it. My opponent had to sabotage the Atlas with an Ordis Spy (C), letting me play my other characters from reserve with boosts to win one side.
Takeaways
The threat of being able to add boosts to whichever expedition you want pressures your opponent into overcommitting to whichever side they’re contesting. If their winning margin is too narrow, you can distribute boosts at the end of the afternoon to edge them out.
As a Haven deck whose primary source of resource advantage is cards that remove fleeting (e.g. Helping Hand, Bravos Vanguard, Sun Wukong (R)), this build is especially vulnerable to removal.
Overperformers
- Mighty Jinn (R): After Haven, this felt like the best card in the deck. It solves Bravos’s card draw problem while also ramping, which is the easiest way for Basira to get ahead.
- Bravos Vanguard (R): I like everything this card is doing: it offers above-rate stats over two bodies, it gives you a Basira trigger, it recurs your boost targets, and it ensures cards end up in your reserve for Haven.
- Chiron (C): Holding Chiron and Basira’s ability until your last play of the day keeps you flexible and can often win an expedition.
Underperformers
- Red (C): This was a textless 2/2/2 more often than I would have liked. Some of this was because Red needs help from other cards to receive boosts. Other times, Red wasn’t the optimal target to stack boosts on for the purposes of winning the current expedition.
- Kelon Cylinder (F): This earned its slot to help enable my uniques, but I’m not sure that it’s impactful enough to run on its own. This didn’t often enable Basira’s hero power on turns when it wouldn’t have already been active, and it was rare to feel like the single boost swung an expedition, especially due to having to apply it preemptively.