Legacy Cephalid Breakfast by MAIAN (14TH PLACE, MTGO Legacy Challenge)
Enchantment (1)
Land (18)
Now this is a blast from the past. Back in the days of yore, when I first started following the Pro Tour and playing in PTQs, there was a deck called Cephalid Breakfast (the name coming from the fact that there was a previous combo deck called Full English Breakfast, which spawned a lot of breakfast-themed deck names – the late 90’s / early 2000’s were weird). Imagine my surprise when I came across a deck that used the combo from that time – there’s no way I wasn’t going to cover it. Take a look at the glory that is the new and improved Cephalid Breakfast!
For reference, here’s a deck list I found from PT Columbus 2004, played by Javier Dominguez from Spain (though I’m not sure if it’s Javier “Fervent Champion” Dominguez – I asked him on Twitter just in case).
@JavierDmagic I was looking up old Cephalid Breakfast decks for an article – was this you from PT Columbus 2004? Pretty cool if so😀 pic.twitter.com/GBtMax2Glx
— Luis Scott-Vargas (@lsv) December 23, 2020
Legacy Cephalid Breakfast (2004) by Javier Dominguez
Creature (18)
Artifact (4)
Enchantment (1)
Land (18)
To put in perspective how old the deck is, when I was looking for lists, a 2011 article on the deck described it as a “blast from the past.”
The combo here revolves around Cephalid Illusionist. When it becomes the target of a spell or effect, you mill yourself for three. What that means is that if you have Nomads en-Kor or Shuko in play, you can mill yourself entirely by targeting it over and over.
Once you have flipped your deck, Narcomeobas come back, you clear the way with Cabal Therapy, and you Dread Return your Thassa’s Oracle for the win.
This deck has a backup plan of Batterskull and Umezawa’s Jitte, thanks to Stoneforge Mystic, while Living Wish gives it both redundancy and the ability to wish for Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath or True-Name Nemesis and win the fair way.
This is a hybrid combo deck, one of my favorite kinds, and having the ability to combo quickly alongside a decent fair plan can lead to some really fun games.
Your best cards to start with are Aether Vial, Cephalid Illusionist and Living Wish, with Nomads en-Kor and Stoneforge Mystic not far behind. You want to be able to combo early and Vial helps you do so without needing many lands and it lets you play both pieces on the same turn to play around removal.
Keep. Despite having no combo pieces, getting to lead on Vial and have Daze and Force for disruption is strong, and you have Brainstorm to dig for more cards.
Keep. This is a turn three kill, as you Stoneforge for Shuko and can play that with the Illusionist on three. Note that the Dread Return is in your hand, so you’ll need to Cabal Therapy yourself on the turn you go off (which isn’t an issue).
Mulligan. Even though you can assemble the combo eventually, this hand is way too slow (and you don’t even have a blue card for FoW).
- Nomads en-Kor and Cephalid Illusionist goes off at instant speed while Shuko doesn’t, so keep that in mind when playing against removal.
- If you suspect the opponent is on a lot of disruption, getting Batterskull with Stoneforge Mystic can force them to take action.
- Likewise, Living Wish for Uro goes a long way against non-exile removal and counters.
- Cavern of Souls can throw a wrench in the opponent’s plan, so try and slowroll it for as long as possible, which also plays around Wasteland.
This is a very cool deck, and it warms my heart seeing these old combos still getting played. I encourage you to have a delicious seafood breakfast and hope that you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing about it.
