Welcome to my set review where I will pick my five favourite cards of each colour from The Brothers’ War booster set!
Given that The Brothers’ War also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article. I also won’t be touching on reprints in either review.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Artifacts and Lands!
I think it’s pretty clear that there are many ways to cheat Portal of Phyrexia into play. Goblin Welder comes to mind. Goblin Engineer gets it into your graveyard for Daretti, Scrap Savant or Trash for Treasure to bring it to play. It’s an artifact, which means Panharmonicon also doubles that ETB, meaning a Hex for each opponent and that upkeep ability can be copied with Lithoform Engine and Strionic Resonator. Get any creature from any graveyard at the beginning of the turn!
Nine mana is a lot but there are no colour requirements, there are a ton of ways to reduce the cost of artifacts, and as I mentioned, you can cheat it in.
Don’t even get me started on Phyrexian Metamorph, Clever Impersonator, or Mirrormade. You play Portal to Phyrexia, knock your opponents back three creatures, next turn play one or more of these clones, and enjoy the groans. Yes, three Fleshbag Marauders for the same price is fine, it doesn’t break the game, it takes a while to get to nine mana, but man, oh man, what a bomb if this sticks around.
Osgir, the Reconstructor can make two copies of this from the graveyard and if Anointed Procession is out, that’s four copies. Suddenly, the game feels a little harder for your opponents to close out. You might be wondering, won’t nine mana be an expensive deterrent for playing this card?
Sure, don’t play it! But I will and I’ll love it. It’s big, it’s splashy, and it reanimates. There are Treasures and Powerstones and ramp and rituals. You’ll be fine! Live a little! Play the Portal!
Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter is one of the coolest cards I’ve seen. It looks ridiculous with Urza’s face so big and prominent, but it’s very powerful. Flash, flying, and it gets buffer for every spell you cast higher than its power – beautiful. Not to mention the most important part: you can cast colourless and artifact spells as though they had flash.
As a commander, it’s going to be a simple deck: Artifacts and Eldrazi. Easy peasy, play Ulamog at instant speed, attack to exile the top 20, good game.
The ability to sneak some stuff in at flash speed is powerful. There’s a reason Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery are beloved. The narrow scope to be colourless or artifact isn’t as limiting as it seems at first. Noxious Gearhulk, Bolas’s Citadel, Nevinyrral’s Disk – only some of the cards you can sneak in. At its worst, Liberator is a legendary Shimmer Myr with flying and added upside of counters and colourless spells being included. Shimmer Myr might have been reprinted into the ground, but it was a powerful expensive card. In the 99, Liberator plays really nicely with Fain, the Broker, Ghave, Guru of Spores, Hopeful Initiate, Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist, Power Conduit, Retribution of the Ancients, Sage of Fables, Sanctuary Warden, Soul Diviner, and Tayam, Luminous Enigma to name a few. Have fun!
Yes, this is one of the cards that melds with Urza to make Urza, Planeswalker, but it is technically colourless. You can include it in any deck!
The ETB choices are beautiful. Two cards or probably killing something important? Sign me up. It triggers Panharmonicon, it plays well with blink strategies like Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Brago, King Eternal, and it’s a mana rock for your mana rocks or activated abilities. Is it phenomenal once it’s in play? Not really. But the prospect of blinking this over and over is very tempting. Plus, when melded with Urza, Lord Protector, you get one of the nuttiest planeswalkers ever printed.
This is an annoying card that is going to do more work just staying put than being activated. The threat of activating and nullifying game actions is very frustrating, especially in a format poised to take advantage of copying artifacts and where the legendary rule rarely matters. Even just having this in a deck where Karn, the Great Creator is protected and ready to -2, you’ll have a soft lock on being taken out. This also wrecks spells that target a player for other effects like Settle the Wreckage.
Where Inkshield is the ‘surprise, gotcha, payback’s a b!tch’ card, The Stasis Coffin is the scene in a martial arts movie where the master leans into the pose and dares his enemies to attack him.
This is a fixed Field of Ruin that doesn’t put two other players up on you. I know this description is reductive and short and sweet, but this is literally an upgraded version of a card we have that players have been asking for.
There you have it! I’ll be back with my thoughts on the new cards in the Commander precons next!
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Ge all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
Welcome to my set review where I will pick my five favourite cards of each colour from The Brothers’ War booster set!
Given that The Brothers’ War also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article. I also won’t be touching on reprints in either review.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Multicolour cards from the set and the accompanying Commander sets.
I love Rakdos decks. It should come as no surprise that Mishra, Claimed by Gix and Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa are getting my brewing gears turning. I’ve already written an A Seat at the Table for Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa for thebagofloot.com, so check that out.
Tombstone Stairwell is one of the meld creatures paired with Phyrexian Dragon Engine to make Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia. Before we get to that unbelievable card, let’s talk about Mishra on his own.
For four mana, a 3/5 who drains your opponents for one when it attacks alone is just fine. The moment you add three attacking creatures like Goblin or Zombie tokens, then you’re swinging for the combat damage, but also draining each opponent for four life. Cards like Tombstone Stairwell, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, Hanweir Garrison, Legion Warboss, or even Delina, Wild Mage all impact the board in their own way and put the pressure on ALL of your opponents. While Delina can make copies of Mishra, the attack trigger does not happen because the copies are already tapped and attacking, so I’d focus on copying stuff like Liliana’s Reaver or Misfortune Teller for them to get their own damage triggers. Or even Professional Face-Breaker or Grim Hireling since they don’t need to be attacking creatures to be copied, then you’ll get the treasures for the hits for each of your copies.
We haven’t even touched on all the life gain! You can use life as a resource and put it into Necropotence so you can find your Phyrexian Dragon Engine!
The moment you get to attack with Mishra and the Phyrexian Dragon Engine, you get three of Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia’s effects. Granted, you can’t pick a single ability more than once per trigger. No matter what, this makes your combat step even scarier. I can’t get over there being six choices!
- Make an opponent discard two cards
- Lightning Bolt
- Destroy target artifact or planeswalker
- Creatures you control gain menace and trample until end of turn
- Creatures you don’t control get -1/-1 until end of turn
- Create two Powerstone tokens
No matter your decision, picking any of these three is going to be massive. Protect Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia because it is absolutely going to get targeted.
I would also consider Mishra, Claimed by Gix in your Mardu Humans lists, as those go wide and go hard. Any go wide strategy in the colours is going to benefit from Mishra in the 99. That said, I can’t wait to brew a deck around him.
Young Pyromancer is a format defining card. For each instant or sorcery you cast, you get a 1/1 Elemental. Then came Monastery Mentor and instant/sorcery became noncreature, meaning artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers also triggered the Mentor, making Monks with Prowess. It’s no mistake that Third Path Iconoclast is a Monk. For UR, you get a Young Pyro/Monastery Mentor mix in that you get creatures for noncreature spells, but they don’t have Prowess.
Have you heard of eggs? Eggs is the colloquialism for artifacts that cost 0 mana. In a deck that runs a bunch of eggs and Paradoxical Outcome with Third Path Iconoclast, this is going to draw a ton of cards and make that many more 1/1s.
This will be the chase uncommon of the set. If you open any, hold onto them if you see yourself hoping to use one. That said, if they’re cheap, pick some up if this is in your colours!
Battery Bearer turns itself and all your other creatures into Powerstones without the subtype. Cryptolith Rite is an expensive and popular card because an effect like turning your whole board of creatures into potential mana generation is extremely powerful. The cherry on top is if you’ve got an artifact to cast with all of these creatures, if it’s six or more mana, you get to draw a card. Spine of Ish Sah just needs a Krark-Clan Ironworks to bring it back to your hand before you play it a bunch and draw cards for it.
Battery Bearer is a card to consider for your GUx decks that make a bunch of creatures and have activated abilities. Keep an eye open for somewhere to slot this in.
Quelle surprise, a mythic planeswalker is on the list. Saheeli, Filigree Master makes me want to keep my Saheeli, the Gifted deck together instead of using it as the base of my Mishra, Eminent One deck. All the Saheeli cards synergize well together!
Going through Saheeli, Filigree Master’s abilities in regards to the set, it’s easy to see that the “untapped artifact you control” is likely a Powerstone token for you to tap to draw a card. The original Saheeli Rai +1 was also a Scry 1 ability, but instead of allowing you to draw a card, you dealt a damage to the table. I like both! Especially if I have The Temporal Anchor!
The -2 on Saheeli is situational, but with token doublers or artifact/creature ETB synergies out there, it could be the move, but rarely will be.
The -4 ability on this three starting loyalty planeswalker with a +1 ability (paging Nissa, Vital Force) means you’ll get it in two turns if you want to cash in Saheeli. If you don’t and you have ways to get more counters on her, the -4 ability stacks! Imagine having two emblems? Your 1/1 Thopters are now 3/3s and your Arcane Signet is free! Did somebody say Deepglow Skate?
Maybe I do need to keep Saheeli, the Gifted together…
Of course I had to talk about Urza. Urza, Lord Protector (Urza, Planeswalker backside) is also great, but I think Prince of Kroog is more interesting.
As a player of Azorius clones, I love being able to copy stuff. For six mana, Urza makes a copy of one of your artifacts, but makes it a 1/1 creature which is actually a 3/3 if Urza’s still around. Powerstones make this ability easy to reach and you’re in Training Grounds colours.
That said, maybe you want to copy something that isn’t an artifact. Liquimetal Torque is one of the best cards printed in the last couple of years. It and Liquimetal Coating can turn your Smothering Tithe into an artifact and Urza can make a token of it.
I have a Sakashima of a Thousand Faces/Livio, Oathsworn Sentinel deck that clones everything and anything. If I play Urza, I can also clone Urza a few times, getting Tempered Steel anthems for every copy so my Gilded Lotus copies can tap for three or swing for 7 if I’ve got enough Urzas around.
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
Welcome to my set review where I will pick my five favourite cards of each colour from The Brothers’ War booster set!
Given that The Brothers’ War also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article. I also won’t be touching on reprints in either review.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Green cards from the set and the accompanying Commander sets.
Green has no shortage of mana dorks. There are even a bunch of solid commanders who are mana dorks like Gilanra, Caller of Wirewood or the popular elf ball enabler Marwyn, the Nurturer. What we see with Gwenna is slightly different. Instead of scaling with her power, she consistently gives you two mana of any colour to cast on creatures or activate their abilities.
Casting creatures with power five or greater buffs Gwenna with a +1/+1 counter and untaps it. Casting these creatures does not require you to use mana made by Gwenna, although it’s likely you will.
With a slew of cheap creatures that have power five or higher, a Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea deck might be a sneaky ramp/Voltron deck you never knew you could build. Phyrexian Dreadnought costs you one mana, untaps Gwenna and leaves you up a mana. Myr Superion can only be cast using mana from creatures and untaps Gwenna – it’s a free pump and untap essentially costing zero mana for a 5/6. Same goes for Lupine Prototype but with more restrictions. Phyrexian Soulgorger is an 8/8 that costs you three, untaps Gwenna and pumps her and with all the low costed beefy creatures you create, you’ll probably be able to keep it around for one or two turns to smack with. Rhonas the Indomitable is a cheap 5/5 that also has an activated ability that Gwenna can pay for. Wayward Swordtooth is Exploration on a 5/5 body for three mana. All those extra lands help pay for more beefy creatures while making your commander a real slap in the face.
Gwenna is first green legend in a while to make me consider building monogreen! And I really don’t like green!
Landfall decks have been super juiced and with the four colour Omnath, Locus of Creation being printed a few years back, they’re extremely popular.
This set, given that it features Titania, was bound to have land shenanigans. We even have a creature Crucible of Worlds in Perennial Behemoth this set!
The most striking of the land relevant cards from this set is of course one of its mythics in Awaken the Woods. With it being an X spell, you’re either creating early game advantage in mana dorks or you’re going big late game and getting Landfall triggers left and right.
Rampaging Baloths is scary enough. Lotus Cobra basically makes this free and don’t even get me started on Parallel Lives/Doubling Season.
This card’s bonkers good and if you have a Landfall deck, good luck finding a cut, but I know you’ll find it.
This is probably the best of the Command cycle from the set – as a Rakdos player it pains me to say that red and black had the worst.
Titania’s Command is great no matter what mode you choose. Even the two modes that require more set up are fantastic – all you need is an opponent’s graveyard to have a stack of cards and a board of creatures to pump. Otherwise, the land tutoring and Bear tokens are awesome.
Remember, they happen in the order they’re in on the card. So if you choose modes three and four, you’re actually getting two 4/4 Bear tokens. But let’s be serious, if I’m casting this at all, I’m looking at mode two and whatever mode is best for the situation, I’m in. Getting two lands – ANY TWO LANDS – from your deck into play is beautiful! Lands are super powerful! You can get Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers in one go. Or you can get Field of the Dead and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Or you can get Strip Mine and Gaea’s Cradle. Or you can get…
This is a lot like Caustic Caterpillar except it can be cast for free if you’ve got a Foundry Inspector or something out to reduce costs. The added life gain is nice if you’re looping this, but the beauty is in the exiling – that’s right, not destroying – of a noncreature artifact or noncreature enchantment. To destroy one of these with the Caterpillar costs you three mana, but Haywire Mite makes it two mana and gains you life. Of course, you are restricted to noncreature targets, but most of the time I’m cracking this to get rid of Rhystic Study or Smothering Tithe. Bye bye, Sol Ring! This is a powerful uncommon that’s going to make some people pretty happy and others pretty salty.
Okay, I’m cheating with this last entry because my real pick is Titania, Gaea Incarnate. Both cards and the Melded monstrosity are fantastic for The Gitrog Monster decks and Lord Windgrace decks alike. Having your lands go to the graveyard and give you an auto-quasi Zuran Orb effect is beautiful.
Argoth, Sanctum of Nature, on its own, is very meh. You need a legendary green creature for it to come into play untapped, it only adds green, and the ability ostensibly costs five to activate and gives you… a bear token at sorcery speed. At least it mills you three cards which does forward the plan on the backside, as long as they’re lands.
The lucky part is that Titania is great and green is the colour that can tutor up any kind of land (see Titania’s Command or Hour of Promise). Of the three new Meld combinations, this one feels the easiest to assemble.
And when Argoth and Titania come together, you get a colossal avatar with keywords that say SMASH. It gets bigger because it Splendid Reclamations on ETB and has power/toughness equal to your lands. Don’t know what to do with that mana? How about turn it into an army? 3G to make a land a 4/4 is a lot of mana, but it gets out of hand quickly considering you’ll be smashing in with Titania, and you can stack four counters on the same land if you’ve got an opening. Titania, Gaea Incarnate is scary to look at and scary to read.
Happy holidays, green players. Your present came early.
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
Welcome to my set review where I will pick my five favourite cards of each colour from The Brothers’ War booster set!
Given that The Brothers’ War also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article. I also won’t be touching on reprints in either review.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Red cards from the set and the accompanying Commander sets.
I’ll begin by saying that I’m not entirely impressed by red’s offerings in this set. I think that there are a few cool things, but the list of cards for red is short compared to the other colours so far. I reviewed red for commandersherald.com and I did what I could to talk up some cards. The cards that stand out are few, but they are fantastic.
That said, Brotherhood’s End is one of my favourite cards in the set. I immediately made room for it in my Sevinne, the Chronoclasm deck because it’s a Brash Taunter tribal.
Having the flexibility to delay three damage to each creature and planeswalker or destroy all small artifacts is noteworthy. The most common criticism of the Magic design team of late has been that Treasure tokens are ubiquitous and as useful/powerful it is to create a Lotus Petal token at the rate we can now, it definitely warps games. Brotherhood’s End gets rid of Signets, Sol Rings, and, of course, Treasures. If you’re aware of this card in your deck, Gilded Lotus and Thran Dynamo should be your artifact ramp of choice. If you picked up the Tyranid precon, your The Swarmlord or Magus Lucea Kane decks will use land ramp and be able to dodge the three damage sweeper. Pick up your copies early, I can see this one getting to be at least $5.
I loved Feldon of the Third Path and based on the fact that he gets reprinted as much as he does, I know someone at Wizards of the Coast does too.
When I heard there’d be a new Feldon card, I was overjoyed. What kind of creature or artifact reanimation or cloning ability with he have?
None, it turns out.
Making sure Feldon can’t block means that he’s probably going to be swinging, especially with haste. Attacking with Feldon tells your opponents “hey, block with your beefy blocker”. They know their 5/5 is going to kill your 2/2, but they also know that this means you’ll get the best card from your top five.
I’m curious enough to try Feldon in my Sevinne deck. If you decide to make him your commander, be sure to pack a Pyrohemia. The card you choose of those exiled can be played until the end of your next turn. If you activate Pyrohemia once each turn, you’ve “drawn” four cards for the turn cycle and made sure your opponents can’t keep 1/1s on the board.
This little guy reminds me of a nerfed Bone Miser. He can rummage for one and tap which isn’t great, but if you discard an artifact, you’re essentially tapping him for a red mana and colour fixing another mana. Being limited to once a turn isn’t great, but threat of it happening when you have other discard outlets is pretty sweet when you’ve got other things to do with that mana.
I have an Anje Falkenrath deck that I’ll be trying out Lil’ Mishra in, but I think its real home is in Daretti, Scrap Savant decks. Daretti can’t +2 and -2 in the same turn. But Mishra can discard something crazy for Daretti to -2 (which is Trash for Treasure). Get a surprise artifact in the yard and help pay for the Scrap Mastery, you’re about to windmill slam.
The original preview for this card was in French and it its name was Exaggeration, which was appropriate.
I want to try this in a bunch of my decks.
Any deck where you flood the board, you’ll want to try this out. I have a Grand Warlord Radha deck that pumps out tokens like nobody’s business because it is a Glimpse of Tomorrow/Warp World deck. Over the Top is another way to make that happen.
My Prosper, Tome-Bound deck is much the same with all the Treasures. I’d like to dump half my library into play with these decks.
Conversely, Zaffai, Thunder Conductor can make a bunch of 4/4 Elemental tokens. By playing Over the Top, you’ll effectively flip somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 cards, bin all the instants and sorceries, hitting all of your lands and mana rocks, and getting to play Past in Flames or Mizzix’s Mastery.
Of course, this also happens to your opponents, but you’re the one playing the card. Maybe don’t play the card when your opponent has a massive stash of tokens. This will likely win them the game unless you’re following up with an Austere Command. Maybe they’ve got so many that you mill them out and once they draw, they die!
All in all, giving your opponents stuff doesn’t mean much when you’re about to kill them all.
Artifact Sneak Attack! But also it costs four to activate. And is oddly a mana ability? That’s strange. Sneak Attack is busted, we know that. Arms Race has the potential to also be busted, but less so. Surprising the table with an Eldrazi Monument in response to a Fumigate changes the course of events considerably. You can also cheat in Mycosynth Lattice while Vandalblast is on the stack. Sure, you’re evil, but you’re just the surprise powder keg – someone else had to shoot the gun!
Here’s a short list of cool cards to cheat in with Arms Race: Meteor Golem, Wurmcoil Engine, Bolas’s Citadel, all the Gearhulks.
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
Welcome to my set review where I will pick my five favourite cards of each colour from The Brothers’ War booster set!
Given that The Brothers’ War also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article. I also won’t be touching on reprints in either review.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Blue cards from the set and the accompanying Commander set.
Drafna is one of my favourite new legends from The Brothers’ War. That creature type line is hilariously long and it makes me happy. However, it’s the cards power that excites me most. For 1U, you can bounce an artifact back you your hand. When you cast it next, if you tack three extra mana on it and tap Drafna, you’ve got two copies.
Mycosynth Wellspring and Ichor Wellspring will be amazing inclusions in the 99 of a Drafna deck. Add Krark-Clan Ironworks to the mix and a Training Grounds, you’ve got an engine humming.
In the 99, Drafna will thrive in Breya, Etherium Shaper and Saheeli, the Gifted decks. Any deck casting artifacts they wouldn’t mind copying at least once will give this guy a look. In a pinch, if you need to save a permanent, you can Liquimetal Torque it to make it an artifact, and then use Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam to bounce it back to hand. I promise this card will surprise you.
I am adding this card to the list because players who love Cyclonic Rift will want this card too. Of course, to use on another player’s turn, it costs 10 and it bounces your own stuff, but there are times where you just need to reset the board. This also ends the turn, and if it’s not your turn, you’re going to be forcing somebody to discard and neglect the rest of the turn they’re planning for. I think the ending of the turn is going be the most feather ruffling part of this.
Any deck you play Omniscience in will be perfect for this. End your opponent’s turn, untap, play Omniscience (we know you have the mana!) and then play everything out again.
Another thing to note is that this is not, nor will it likely be, a $30-50 card like Rift is. If this floats your boat, you might want to get your copies when this hits under a dollar.
For a six mana artifact, you have to have something crazy like Bolas’s Citadel. Luckily, The Temporal Anchor is pretty nuts. Is it as powerful as Citadel? No. But it is really, really cool.
This card cares about scrying, which surprisingly, few Blue commanders do. Elminster, The Scarab God, Zaffai, Thunder Conductor, Thrasios, Triton Hero, Thassa, God of the Sea, Siani, Eye of the Storm, Oji, the Exquisite Blade, and Gnostro, Voice of the Crags are the only eligible commanders who have scry in their textbox.
Luckily, scrying is evergreen and there’s plenty of it out there. Being able to play cards exiled with The Temporal Anchor on your turns without being limited by how many you can play is pretty satisfying. You can store some land drops under The Temporal Anchor if you’ve already got land in hand or vice versa – use your exiled lands to keep the hand stacked. It allows you to move cards around to sequence your advantage. It’s oddly reminiscent of Sylvan Library. It’s not two mana, but it is fun.
Of course, if it gets blown up or blinked, you lose those cards, but that’s the risk. I’m really excited to see how this plays. I think it’s going to make or break some games.
Three mana 2/4 with a textbox so long it requires multiple read-throughs. Hot damn! Hurkyl wants you to play on your turn, that much is clear, but she also wants you to specialize or spread the love among your card types: sorceries, instants, artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers to be specific.
You can build a Hurkyl deck to be a spellslinger (instant and sorcery) or artifact or enchantment or planeswalker deck, but if she’s leading the deck, I’d be surprised to see non-spellslinger versions of her.
Something to note – if you have a turn where you play an artifact, and in your end step you reveal a Solemn Simulacrum or Baleful Strix, you can put that card into your hand because it’s an artifact. Similarly, if you play a Bident of Thassa, you’ve cast an artifact and an enchantment, so you can reveal five cards and if you have an enchantment and artifact among them, congratulations, you’re up two cards!
In the 99, I could see this slot into Muldrotha, the Gravetide smoothly. I am considering it for my Aminatou, the Fateshifter Superfriends deck because I have a healthy amount of artifacts, enchantments, and or course, planeswalkers.
Speaking of my Aminatou Superfriends deck… it draws lots of cards.
This new Teferi gains loyalty counters when you draw cards and for 0 loyalty, he can draw you a card. Needless to say, this Teferi can get out of hand quickly, especially in decks like The Council of Four for which card draw begets more card draw.
In decks that draw a lot, Teferi will be nearly unbeatable. Twelve loyalty is nothing when your opponents keep having to rebuild over and over because you’re drawing three or four cards a turn.
The turn Teferi comes down, use his draw ability to bring him to five. Even if you don’t have a way to draw that turn, the next turn, you draw, then you use his ability – that’s two loyalty. He’s up to seven. Brainstorm for one mana, that’s another three loyalty. Before you know it, Teferi is up to ten loyalty uninterrupted for just one extra mana (and of course protecting him). Kami of the Crescent Moon, Howling Mine, Font of Mythos – they all get much scarier when you’re threatening to pop opponents’ resources back to their hands.
That does it! Check back soon for the next colour!
Welcome to my set review where I will pick my five favourite cards of each colour from the upcoming Brothers’ War booster set!
Given that The Brothers’ War also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article. I also won’t be touching on reprints in either review.
My general thoughts on reprints are this: Was it expensive before and is it inexpensive now? Do you want to buy the card at its more affordable price? If you said yes to all of these, hey! Congratulations, you’re buying some cards! Be sure to check out threekingsloot.com to see if we have them and pick up as many as you need.
Without further ado, here are my favourite White cards from the set and the accompanying Commander set.
What’s not to like about a creature that will no doubt draw you cards at your end step? Platoon Dispenser costs five, but this is easily reduced by cards like Cloud Key, The Immortal Sun, Foundry Inspector, Etherium Sculpter, etc.
It is entirely possible to bring the cost of this down to 0, but that takes some building around. Any deck that loves Mycosynth Golem loves this. As long as it has White, that is.
This is also where Powerstones come in. Powerstones cannot pay for nonartifact spells. Platoon Dispenser and its ability are eligible for Powerstones to pay. At the end step, if you control two or more other creatures, you draw a card. And if before your end step, if you don’t have two other creatures, the ability can help make that happen.
All this isn’t even taking into account that this can be Unearthed. White is one of the primary colours for blink and flicker strategies. If you Unearth Platoon Dispenser with Conjurer’s Closet, you can hit your end step and get your card draw trigger and also flicker Platoon Dispenser. Because it was already headed to exile, it returns as a new object. I think there’s a lot to like in this card.
This is a card that was partly spoiled, but mistakenly labeled as costing WW and as a 2/2. Everybody was absolutely floored by it, but there were skeptics. I definitely did not believe it. It is very cool to have a type of Grand Abolisher effect in your command zone. This card is reminiscent of Krenko, Mob Boss and Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin in that Myrel makes tokens equal to the amount of a certain tribe (Soldiers) and has to attack.
With your opponents blocked from casting spells and activating abilities of most permanents, you have free reign during combat to pull tricks without any fear.
I’ll say that I am not excited about her in the 99 of dedicated token decks. My Thalisse, Reverent Medium deck can benefit from having a way to not only create tokens, but also to protect any sort of combo to end the game.
There are Boros soldier decks out there that are going to snap pack the Shield of Argive into the 99 easily. Darien, King of Kjeldor might have a tag team partner for those who want to play with interchangeable commanders.
We just got Welcoming Vampire in Crimson Vow and here is another “welcoming” card that grows your hand when creatures enter. Welcoming Vampire cares about power two or less, but what if you’re playing Tendershoot Dryad and have the City’s Blessing? Your creation of creature tokens every upkeep is a lot less useful once you hit three power.
With Toscasia’s Welcome, it doesn’t matter what power your tokens are, you’ll get that card. Playing Ophiomancer in your Orzhov aristocrats deck? Have a card every upkeep, as long as you can sack the Snakes. Tendershoot Dryad, Beledros Witherbloom, Dragon Broodmother, Dreampod Druid, First Response, Koma, Cosmos Serpent, Seance, Tombstone Stairwell, Verdant Force, and Wolverine Riders create a token creature each upkeep.
If you play Ant Queen and have the mana up, you can keep creating the tokens on other players turns to make each activation a cantrip, too. Maybe Platoon Dispenser!
White finally has a Reclamation Sage. A 2/1 Vigilant creature means that you can swing when opponents are open. You can also make a deal if you need combat damage triggers or a safe attack. “Hey, I need to swing Loran for my Sword of the Animist trigger. If you let her through, I’ll tap her to give you a card.”
Making an ally is powerful in Commander. I think the ability to draw and offer another player a card is a good way to get favours at the table. It’s also a good way to get your opponents to misevaluate you. If you’re building Loran, that ETB effect is going to be important to you. Let your opponents cast the enchantments and artifacts that you’ve drawn them into… you get to blow them up.
I’ll keep this one short and sweet.
This is a powerful combo card that is so cool and weird. There is no limit to how many times you can do this, just when you can. You can only do it during your turn. Not sorcery speed. Anytime, during your turn, you can activate the ability to return a permanent you control to its owner’s hand and because the set cares about Unearth, it also gets around that.
Dockside Extortionist where you create six Treasures means that you have infinite mana unless somebody does something. If you have creatures with good ETBs that you want to retrigger with white in the deck, this is bound to be an amazing inclusion.
Oh, wait, no not just creatures. ANY PERMANENT!
“I choose to Oblivion Ring your commander.” “I’ll put it in my command zone.” “Great, I bring it back to my hand and can do it again.”
This is going into my clones deck. I cannot wait to make even more annoying use of my Clever Impersonator.
And now, a list of my Honorable Mentions:
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This edition is more Brothers’ War Commander goodness!
Urza, Chief Artificer is the face commander of the Urza’s Iron Alliance preconstructed Commander deck coming alongside the Brothers’ War set. For 3WUB, you get a 4/5 Legendary Human Artificer with a textbox that gets your artifact creatures in the red zone. Check it out:
“Affinity for artifact creatures (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact creature you control.)
Artifact creatures you control have menace.
At the beginning of your end step, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with “This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.””
This deck will need to focus on having artifact creatures and getting them to turn sideways, swinging at your opponents. Each of your end steps gets you another Karn-struct token, which buffs your other ones. Let’s talk the 99.
Foundry Inspector is a classic for artifact decks, reducing your artifacts by one. Cloud Key does the same, but offers some flexibility. Artificer Class does this for your first artifact spell each turn – a thing to note for Shimmer Myr and Vedalken Orrery. Artificer Class also has two other modes that can get out of hand really quickly. Solemn Simulacrum is a given in a deck revolving around artifact creatures. Urza, Lord Protector is a Goblin Electromancer that also reduces artifact costs by one. Not to mention when paired The Mightstone and Weakstone, you get to Meld the two into Urza, Planeswalker which is bonkers for any deck that can have it.
Mycosynth Golem gives your artifact creatures affinity for artifacts as does…
One of my favourite planeswalkers and one of the best rewards for an artifact deck. For six mana, you get a 5 loyalty planeswalker that ticks up to 7 with an insane loyalty ability: It deals X damage to each opponent where X is the number of artifacts you control, which will be MANY. Then you gain X life. All while reducing the costs of your creatures and planeswalkers. The -3 ability is great recursion for artifacts. The ultimate ability is pretty nuts, but I can’t get past that cost reduction static ability and the +2. This is a finisher and sets you up. A true all star.
The tokens Urza makes count as artifacts. Anointed Procession is an obvious inclusion to double up all tokens created with Urza or Smothering Tithe or any of these other incredible additions to the deck.
Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant lets you copy the artifacts you cast on each of your turns and turns casting instants, sorceries, and artifacts into a difficult ordeal for your opponents.
Echo Storm is a card I’ve always really loved. In decks where your commander gets cast a bunch, Echo Storm can copy a ton of artifacts. Use Biotransference to turn all your creatures into artifacts and Mycosynth Lattice to turn everything into artifacts for you to copy. It’s never a bummer to cast Echo Storm copied two or three times to get four Seat of the Synods or Gilded Lotuses.
Mirrorworks allows you to pay two mana anytime a nontoken artifact enters under your control. Ancient Den coming into play in the late game? You just paid one mana to ramp. Especially with Mycosynth Golem and Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, you’ll end up just paying two mana for fully reduced artifact creatures plus a copy.
A new card from the Brothers’ War main set, Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam, can bounce artifacts back to your hand so you can copy with Mirrorworks or get another Baleful Strix trigger out of the iron bird. Not to mention, when you cast an artifact spell, you have the option to copy it with Drafna’s second ability.
Need more artifacts? Why not play Efficient Construction or cards that do a pretty good impression of it, like Mirrodin Besieged and Sai, Master Thopterist.
Digsite Engineer lets you tack 2 mana onto any artifact spell you cast for another Karn-struct that your commander makes. With all the cost reduction in the deck, you can pay regular price for an artifact and get a bonus Construct that buffs others like it.
When you’re playing a deck with so many of one particular type, you’re bound to run into a player who has your number. A Vandalblast will mess up your board like nobody’s business. A Bane of Progress will ruin your day.
Triumphant Reckoning and Brilliant Restoration will bring your artifacts and enchantments back from your graveyard to play all in one go. The Reckoning also throws in your planeswalkers for good measure.
Open the Vaults does the same for all players. Roar of Reclamation does the same for all players, but only for artifacts.
If you’ve got enough mana for it, pumping a ton of mana into X on Dance of the Manse will bring back all the artifacts and non-aura enchantments from your graveyard and turn them into 4/4s for a big swing next turn. The flexibility is key with this card. If you pay less than 6 into X, you still get five artifacts/enchantments with mana value five or less back to play, which is pretty nutty value.
Tameshi, Reality Architect is a card I’ve been fascinated with since its release in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (aka a million years ago). I tried my hand at building a Commander deck around Tameshi, but I don’t think I’m ready to lean into stax, which this build practically requires. Not only does it give you a draw once a turn any time noncreature cards are bounced to hand from play, Tameshi also allows you to play enchantments and (more likely) artifacts from your graveyard for the extra cost of a W mana and returning a land to your hand. Oh, and would you look at that, the land bouncing to your hand just drew you a card! Tameshi provides a lot of interesting decision points that I am excited to see play out in this Esper artifact precon upgrade.
That does it for this one! Let me know which commander you’d like me to cover next time on A Seat at the Table. Message me on Twitter @mikecarrozza and I’ll see you at pre-release!
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This edition is more Brothers’ War goodness!
This time we’re taking a look at Tawnos, the Toymaker, truly the strangest iteration of Tawnos. Even if you’d given me a year to guess what he’d do, I’d start by saying the wrong colours to begin with.
Tawnos, the Toymaker is a 3/5 Legendary Human Artificer for 3GU – that’s right, GREEN! and BLUE! I would have never ever guessed, but here we are. Would I have guessed that he’s also a TRIBAL COMMANDER? Never in a million years. Let’s look at that text box:
“Whenever you cast a Beast or Bird creature spell, you may copy it, except the copy is an artifact in addition to its other types. (The copy becomes a token.)”
Things to note and remember:
– Tawnos triggers on casting a creature and not it entering the battlefield. Panharmonicon will likely still be good in the deck, but not for doubling creatures.
– Tawnos costs five mana which while we are in green is easy, but we’re still going to need lots of ramp. Bonus points if the ramp is attached to a bird or beast.
– These copied spells are of the type that was cast, meaning that Ego Erasure and Wings of Velis Vel get doubled when you cast them with Tawnos out. While that’s cute, I don’t see this being very useful.
Time to start naming cool cards.
Green has the classics: Kodak’s Reach, Rampant Growth, Three Visits, Nature’s Lore, etc. But what about the other stuff? Who could forget the bird? Birds of Paradise gets out early and helps, but when Tawnos is out, two birds for one mana means a coloured Sol Ring with summoning sickness. Or you could play Lightning Greaves or Concordant Crossroads to mitigate that.
Other solid creatures to fill this need are Gilded Goose and Arboreal Grazer, assuming you have enough Food or lands in hand. Lullmage’s Familiar is a beast that is a colour producing Worn Powerstone when you cast it with your commander out.
Tribal decks usually want lands like Path of Ancestry, but not this deck. Unclaimed Territory and Secluded Courtyard are your friends, depending on how heavy you lean toward either bird or beast. If you’ve got an even split, you’ve got a decision to make. Think on it.
Cavern of Souls just got reprinted this year, so it’s the cheapest it will be for a little while. Heads up to all my Tribal lovers out there.
Pack your artifacts like Cloud Key, Herald’s Horn, and Urza’s Incubator for more reductions. These will also help you cast your Changeling creatures, like Masked Vandal and Moritte of the Frost. You could also go all out and include Maskwood Nexus and Arcane Adaptation to be sure it applies to all of your creatures.
A lot of great Mutate creatures in these colours are Beasts and Birds! And they copy on casting, meaning you can target different creatures! Migratory Greathorn belongs in the first category, ramping you a bunch. Draw cards with Dreamtail Heron or flip the top with Parcelbeast. Destroy things with Gemrazer and Sawtusk Demolisher. You can steal noncreature artifacts with Souvenir Snatcher. Bounce creatures with Pouncing Shoreshark. Make an army with Trumpeting Gnarr. Or you can spin the wheel with Auspicious Starrix. You can’t Mutate onto Tawnos because he’s a human, but otherwise, your deck full of Birds and Beasts should have a ton of targets to Mutate onto for all this sweet value.
Let’s bring the beefy heat first. Everybody’s favourite overrun on legs is a Beast, eliciting groans at tables it graces. I’m talking of course about Craterhoof Behemoth. Really overkill with Ol’ Hoof hitting twice with Tawnos. Blossoming Bogbeast does a fine impression if you gain life. Two of them! With the guaranteed four life a combat, that’s +4/+4 and trample for your team each combat they attack.
Aarakocra Sneak and Displacer Beast let you go dungeon diving twice. Not to mention Displacer Beast can be bounced to your hand and played again for another two moves through dungeons.
Crookclaw Elder comes down with two bodies, allowing you to draw immediately or make use of your Birds of Paradise and Gilded Geese for cards instead of mana in the late game.
With all the tokens you make, Curiosity Crafter and its token buddy allows for tokens to draw two cards per smack.
For removal, Indrik Stomphowler and Manglehorn can destroy artifacts and enchantments. Meanwhile, Aven Fogbringer can bounce lands back to your opponents’ hands.
Get yourself two Elder Gargaroths for two triggers per attack/block. With all of these copy tokens being artifacts, Broodstar is probably going to cost two mana for two at least 8/8 flyers.
Double up your Rampaging Baloths for two 4/4s per landfall! Thragtusk for 10 life on ETB and two 3/3s on leaving the battlefield.
A great way to make sure you get the most out of your cards, you should get them back in your hand to cast with Tawnos in play again. Cloudstone Curio won’t let you bounce for your artifact copy tokens, but the originals will let you send back another creature, like Arboreal Grazer or your Mutate pile. Keeper of the Nine Gales makes use of all your birds, turning these into ways to bounce opponents threats and your own goodies. Pair with Seedborn Muse for extra fun.
Distant Melody draws you cards for how many of a creature type you control, Kindred Discovery gets cards on ETB and attack, and Vanquisher’s Banner gives you a card when you cast a card of the chosen type. Descendants’ Path lets you CAST a card you reveal from the top of your library, which will trigger Tawnos. Kindred Summons lets you get right through your deck if you’ve got a ton of creatures that share a type in play.
Reflections of Littjara is like a double Tawnos for one of the two types. Door of Destinies is a solid anthem as you make your way casting Beasts or Birds thanks to your Herald’s Horn and Urza’s Incubator. It might turn off your Mutate cards, but Steely Resolve is fantastic if you’re in a removal heavy meta.
Finally, a finisher that I love very much, even if it pumps all the the other tribal decks at the table – Coat of Arms. Buff all your Beasts and Birds for each other Beast or Bird out there. Make sure not to play this into Maskwood Nexus unless you’re ready for a ton of math.
And that does it for today’s A Seat at the Table! Let me know which commander you’d like covered in the series by messaging me at @mikecarrozza on Twitter!
Thanks and see you at pre-release!
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
