#114 - Brothers' War Pauper EDH Set Review

In this article, I'll be reviewing the Brothers' War set (BRO), specifically looking at how useful the cards will be in Pauper Commander.

Overall, I love this set. Specifically from a 4-player PDH perspective, it feels powered down compared to a lot of what we've seen in the past year, and that's good. To me, the focus of the set in PDH is on the commons, with extra doses of flexibility, redundancy, and utility for many existing archetypes. Usually when a set focuses on graveyards, white gets far fewer goodies, and when artifacts are a heavy focus, green can sometimes get the shaft. However, the prototype keyword and some buffing triggered abilities helps green in BRO feel somewhat similar to Kaladesh to me (which featured tons of green +1/+1 counter mechanics), and a few color-pie stretching cycles and colorless utility cards are giving white a lot more tools to support grave play! I'm very much hoping these trends continue and aren't isolated to this set.

As a quick side note before we get into the card analysis, a common question during this spoiler season was what exactly Powerstone tokens' mana could pay for (the text for the Powerstone token's ability is, “{T}: Add {C}. This mana can't be spent to cast a nonartifact spell.” While it's clear to everyone that they can pay for artifact spells, what some people didn't notice at first was that powerstones can also pay for activated abilities (like Wildheart Invoker), triggered abilities (like paying for targeting a creature with ward), and any additional costs that aren't part of casting a spell (such as if an opponent cast Fade Away). With that out of the way, let's start talking about our new commander options!

Commanders

Recruitment Officer fills a similar role as Mentor of the Meek in white weenie midrange. Officer doesn't need tokens, so card choice is slightly more flexible, but Officer also needs more ramp to gain the same amount of card advantage. I want to say that I like Mentor of the Meek better because of the ability to draw more interaction and protection, but this is still an interesting variation on the archetype, since Officer's activated ability can hit a lot of different value/toolbox/payoff pieces, like Heliod's Pilgrim, Ramosian Lieutenant, Aegis Automaton, and Steadfast Unicorn.

Combat Thresher is interesting in its prototype form as an aggro voltron alternative to Fencing Ace or Boros Swiftblade. While it's more expensive and lacks red for big instant-speed buff spells, Thresher's draw ability has the potential to help it last better into the late game, especially if the deck can focus on equipment, so that flicker effects can be used for protection without losing auras. Flicker will both allow for access to the 3/3 body without paying the full mana cost, as well as re-trigger the draw effect.

Urza, Powerstone Prodigy has the potential to helm an artifact midrange deck with heavy control elements, somewhat like the older Raff Capashen. While Raff specializes in holding up mana to counterspell or flash in artifact creatures for combat surprises, Urza can take more of a brute force approach, using powerstones to power repeatable activated abilities like Secret Door, Floodhound, and Third Path Savant, which will allow you to draw more artifacts and removal. Early in the game, you can cast rocks and discard any unneeded creatures, and in the late game, you can discard unneeded rocks to create more powerstones and dig for more ways to impact the board. It really is a shame that the ability is so limited, though (“one or more” and “once per turn”). It would have been a blast to try to create a ton of powerstones on turn 4 with something like Tolarian Winds.

Hulking Metamorph is mostly the same as other clone creatures, which we've had in the command zone for quite a while. However, the ability to keep its 7/7 body makes this Hulk ideal for copying infect creatures. While this probably isn't as powerful as other infect strategies, combining infect with voltron and ramp does makes the deck pretty unique. The closest comparison is Viral Drake, but Drake makes games flow very differently, since Hulking Metamorph will kill one opponent at a time. For those wanting to play more defensively, there are 4 indestructible artifacts that Metamorph could become a 7/7 copy of, all of which can be tutored for in blue.

Gurgling Anointer presents an interesting combination of voltron and value. I see the deck mixing Blood Pact and Blade Juggler effects. The cantrip creatures are used to trigger Anointer during your turn, while Blood Pact effects are used to trigger Anointer on other players' turns if you don't need the mana for interaction. Because Anointer has flying, you'll already be able to do a lot of threatening of opponents, even before the horror grows very large. Then, when Anointer inevitably dies, you can return a cantrip creature or large threat to the field, and could even use an Undying Evil effect to bring Anointer back to the field. Even if you can't reanimate Anointer, the deck should be drawing plenty of lands, making it relatively easy to recast your commander. Just make sure you pack sacrifice effects to get Anointer out from under disabling enchantments and bounce or exile spells. I could also see Anointer built with heavy equipment and mill themes for a bigger focus on the reanimator side of the deck without as many generically good draw spells.

Giant Cindermaw looks like a fun casual deck for pods that have trouble with games going long because of lifegain and players being hesitant to attack. Combined with goading and a few repeatable burn effects, like Witty Roastmaster and Thermo-Alchemist should make the deck quite effective at pressuring life totals, even if opponents are trying to hold back many creatures for defense. My only wish is that Cindermaw and Seeker of Slaanesh had Partner With.

Alloy Animist looks like a super unique artifact deck that will play somewhat similarly to Halsin, although it will require more ramp. The difference is that Animist can animate extra mana rocks and eggs like Ichor Wellspring and Golden Egg, simplifying deck construction and giving the deck quite a bit of grindy potential. I also imagine the deck will make good use of cheap, reusable buffs like Rancor and Bonesplitter to make animated artifacts better at trading up and chipping away at opponents.

Battery Bearer is, at first glance, all about playing big artifacts. (Here's a list of the ones that trigger Bearer, which includes quite a few sizeable creatures.) However, to me, that's only a third of the interesting things the deck does. The rest is all about the creatures that Battery Bearer uses to create mana. The deck can be absolutely packed with abilities that trigger when the creature is tapped, such as Moonfolk Puzzlemaker, Sphinx's Disciple, and Scaretiller, as well as creatures with expensive activated abilities, such as Wildheart Invoker, Ravenous Leucrocota, and Brightwood Tracker. By combining all these approaches, a Battery Bearer deck should be able to create tons of card advantage while also flooding the board with creatures of all sizes.

Fallaji Vanguard reminds me of both Bronzebeak Moa and Bruenor. Vanguard combines the voltron and token shenanigans of Moa (where dropping lots of tokens can allow you to one-shot somebody with commander damage) with Bruenor's ability to pump doublestrike creatures like Twinscroll Shaman. I think Fallaji Vanguard decks will also have some fun with flicker/EtB combinations generating value at the same time as pumping creatures. This deck probably ends up being right on the line between aggro and midrange, combining aspects of go-wide and go-tall strategies, depending on what you draw and what's across the table from you.

Hero of the Dunes bears a certain resemblance to Barrowin. Both use plentiful flicker and Undying Evil effects with the commander, with the end result of reanimating small permanents. While Barrowin brings a little more up-front card advantage with venturing and can grind for card advantage by reanimating in the late game without needing flicker effects, Hero instead allows reanimation of interesting artifacts like Spare Supplies or Executioner's Capsule and gets its reanimation online much sooner, since they don't need to complete a dungeon. The anthem effect on Hero and lack of required combat in the mid-game also make it a little different. I think flying tokens chipping away at opponents will also play a major role in many Hero of the Dunes victories, while Barrowin does a bit more with commander damage. Just like Barrowin, I think Hero can be built more towards grindy value by including more sacrifice effects like Spark Reaper, which can both put reanimation targets back in the grave or sacrifice Hero after using an Undying Evil effect.

Junkyard Genius reminds me a lot of a favorite commander of mine, Maverick Thopterist. While the decks go about it in different ways, both build an army of creature tokens while biding their time. Then, in the late game, both spring forward, quickly and opportunistically killing opponents with buffed tokens. The difference is that Genius needs more token creators in the deck, while Thopterist needs more Trumpet Blast cards. In addition, Thopterist having blue makes its interaction suite more defensive, where black interaction could be built to be more disruptive to opponents (so kill spells and edicts, as opposed to counterspells). I'm really looking forward to swinging with a bunch of token creatures and using Genius to sacrifice the 2 or 3 that have been blocked. In my head, you almost never sac Genius's powerstones to its own abilities, instead using the powerstones to pay the mana cost of the activated ability repeatedly. I also think it will be very rare for Genius to be targeted by removal, since they're not very threatening on their own.

Yotian Dissident looks like a fun and moderately aggressive deck. Requiring artifacts means it can't be as all-out aggressive as Grumgully or Good-Fortune Unicorn are with mana-efficient creature tokens. However, using artifacts opens the door for card advantage sources like Spare Supplies, while the ability to put multiple +1/+1 counters on the same creature allow the deck to create larger threats for the mid-game, pivoting away from small, aggressive creatures when they drop in effectiveness. So while Dissident is less flexible during deckbuilding, it should be more flexible during the actual game.

Third Path Iconoclast retreads a lot of the same ground as Murmuring Mystic, Young Pyromancer, and Storm-Kiln Artist. However, the major difference is that the tokens Iconoclast creates are both artifacts and creatures, allowing them to work with a much wider variety of triggered abilities and sacrifice effects. For example, Destructive Digger, Embraal Gear-Smasher, Dark-Dweller Oracle, Impact Tremors, and Ingenious Artillerist all work well with Iconoclast tokens. This allows the deck to be more flexible than any of the previous comparable commanders, not depending on draw spells as much to create tokens and not depending on combat as much for a win condition. Because of the ability to sacrifice tokens for card advantage more easily, the deck also doesn't need to run as many draw spells and cantrips as its predecessors.

Similar Commons

With the commanders out of the way, it's time to move on to the commons that are either notable additional copies of or improvements on existing effects at common. It's easy to dismiss these as less consequential than the unique commons, but remember that sometimes having a 5th or 6th copy of an effect is what makes it worth finally building around in our singleton format.

Ambush Paratrooper brings white up to 6 total copies of creatures with a temporary anthem activated ability (like Cliffside Lookout). Paratrooper having flash makes it better at surprising opponents when it comes down on one of their end steps, and flying means it buffs itself and contributes to the total attack power of your forces. Having reached this level of saturation of repeatable anthems should give a lot more consistency to white weenie and token decks.

Loran's Escape is, in practice, pretty similar to Blacksmith's Skill, but there aren't any other white commons like them. While most of the time, white loves using spells like Cloudshift and Gods Willing to protect its creatures, having more hexproof/indestructible options like Escape is great for aura-based decks, which stand to lose a lot of temp and resources if a protection or flicker instant makes the auras fall off of their big combat threat.

Prison Sentence is a Bound in Gold lockdown aura that gives up stopping vehicle crewing in exchange for scrying. Since white midrange has such issues with card advantage and selection, I think those decks actually care a lot about this additional effect.

Scrapwork Cohort is a great addition to white go-wide decks, nearly matching the archetype staple, Battle Screech, with its ability to produce 4 bodies from one card, and the ability to produce two bodies even if the card is discarded or milled.

Fallaji Archaeologist is somewhat of an improvement on Augur of Bolas that gives up one power in exchange for being able to also grab a nonland artifact or enchantment card. Milling is a bonus on top of that, but I think there's plenty of decks that want the Archaeologist, even if they don't care about filling the grave.

Third Path Savant is the fifth mono-blue creature with an activated ability that gives repeatable card draw, and only the second one (along with Tymora's Invoker) that requires neither tapping, nor colored mana. That makes it ideal for a wide variety of infinite combos.

Urza's Rebuff is our second modal counterspell, along with You Find the Villains' Lair. These are great for cascade decks like Imoti and Ethersworn Sphinx, since these modal spells aren't completely useless when you cascade into them. I actually like Rebuff better than YFtVL, since cascade decks often have combat win cons, which are aided by being able to tap down potential blockers.

Ashnod's Intervention is notable for its similarity to Kaya's Ghostform. Intervention will probably see considerably less play, since it returns the creature to your hand, instead of to the battlefield. However, both will be welcome in decks that frequently make use of unearth abilities, like Sedraxis Specter, since Intervention can put an unearthed creature back into your hand.

Mightstone's Animation is the third common card that can animate artifacts for longer than a single turn, along with Kenku Artificer and Ashnod's Transmogrant. Combining Animation with indestructible artifacts like Darksteel Ingot or Razortide Bridge gives you an indestructible 4/4. Green has long been able to do this with land animation cards, but having access in blue opens up a lot more possibilities, since blue has more ways to tutor for indestructible artifacts, such as with Trinket Mage and Drift of Phantasms.

Gixian Infiltrator will most often be used as a second copy of Mortician Beetle (or third if your color identity allows for Body Dropper). While the Beetle triggers when opponents sacrifice creatures, Infiltrator triggers on any of your permanents being sacrificed, so it grows from all kinds of cheap tokens, like blood, food, and treasures. For an example of when Infiltrator is useful and Beetle isn't, just look at Sludge Strider. In Sludge Strider decks, treasures are already one of the easiest ways to trigger Strider and pay for its ability. Infiltrator also will grow whenever you sacrifice a land like Evolving Wilds, making it particularly powerful in 3+ color decks.

Ravenous Gigachad... er, I mean Gigamole, lands somewhere between Phyrexian Rager and Necromancer's Assistant. While the body isn't fantastic, and it doesn't dump that much into the grave, I still see Gigamole being played in decks like Molderhulk. This type of deck can often have more than 50 creature cards, allowing Gigamole to have a decent chance of putting a creature into your hand while also putting another into your grave.

Overwhelming Remorse has generated a lot of excitement, but I think it requires a lot more setup than most people realize. It's definitely worth running in some decks, but even in the best decks for it, I expect it to be cast with only a 2 or 3 mana discount most of the time. Many grave decks use up the creatures in their yard, and also tend to be the first targeted with grave hate. So, even while playing decks that want to keep their grave full, you won't always have a full 4-mana discount in effect.

Thraxodemon is the 5th copy of the effects that first came to common with Spark Reaper. Thraxodemon must tap and doesn't gain life, but does gain the ability to sacrifice artifacts. That means Thraxodemon can sacrifice treasures, food, and blood tokens to generate card advantage. On the downside, Thraxodemon has the least toughness of any of the other 4 black commons with similar abilities, making it vulnerable to small board wipes, like Fiery Cannonade. These creatures do a lot to make EtB abuse with Undying Evil effects more sustainable and consistent, so I'm really excited every time we get a new copy of the ability.

Trench Stalker is basically a conditional French vanilla creature, but it is notable as the largest common creature with lifelink yet printed. With a body large enough to survive multiple combats unaided, Trench Stalker has a ton of potential to reverse the life loss that usually comes with the black draw spells that can help to turn on its static ability.

Clay Revenant gives black a 4th self-recurring creature. More specifically, this is a second copy of Sanitarium Skeleton. Revenant and the Skeleton are unique for being able to create an affordable card draw engine with Tortured Existence. Beyond that engine, though, having more self-recurring creatures is also great for aristocrat and mass-discard decks, such as Marsh Croccodile, Elas il-Kor, or the new Junkyard Genius. As we continue to get more creatures like this, it opens up the possibility of aristocrat decks that depend less on tokens for their sacrificial fodder. Clay Revenant can even be tutored up with Trinket Mage or Dizzy Spell in blue/black decks.

Scrapwork Rager can act as a second copy of First-Sphere Gargantua in graveyard decks, such as Kagha or Grixis Battlemage. While Scrapwork Rager is more expensive to unearth and has a smaller body, having a much cheaper casting cost makes Scrapwork Rager better than Gargantua for aristocrat decks, since it's cheaper to get two bodies' worth of sacrifices out of the same card.

Penregon Strongbull is similar to Embraal Gear-Smasher. These are specifically useful with lots of artifact tokens, such as thopter, treasure, or blood tokens. When considered alongside triggered effects, like Reckless Fireweaver, this brings us up to 4 mono red commons that turn artifacts into symmetrical burn. Strongbull may be the least desirable of the 4, but it's still inching us closer to saturation of these effects so that any artifact-token-producing commander can be consistently built around a burn theme. For now, I see this mostly being used in the new Third Path Iconoclast.

Gaea's Gift is another protective instant in the same vein as Snakeskin Veil. However, Gift is much broader in its applicability, since it also prevents death by board wipe and can be used as emergency defense against fliers. Gift is also ideal for voltron threats like Daemogoth Woe-Eater, since it can both give trample to get through damage and give indestructible to guarantee the creature survives combat. This combination of offensive and defensive utility is much the same as what makes protection spells like Feat of Resistance so powerful in white voltron decks, so it's very exciting to see green getting access to that flexibility. Up until the last two years, green hasn't been very consistent at protecting voltron threats, since most of green's protective abilities take the form of regeneration. However, Gaea's Gift is the 7th way for green to give hexproof, which allows voltron decks to more consistently defend against removal like Crib Swap, Into the Roil, Oubliette, or Lignify. I'm also a fan of dad jokes, so the flavor text is a slam dunk.

Wasteful Harvest is fantastic for mill decks, since it's unique in its flexibility to grab key artifacts or enchantments, like Whispersilk Cloak or Tortured Existence. While Wasteful Harvest is pretty mana intensive, it still compares a bit favorably to similar cards, such as Scout the Borders or Commune with the Gods based on the type of cards you can get in hand or the number of cards milled. It's also worth noting that this new style of mill cantrip lets the chosen card go to the grave before returning to your hand, allowing them to trigger effects like on Tormod, the Desecrator.

Energy Refractor is mostly useful in PDH as a combo piece, usually turning colorless mana (like from Ashnod's Altar or Vhal) into colored mana that can be used to continue an infinite loop. We can already do this with Prismite and a few other similar creatures, but Refractor is much better in two key ways. Refractor is less vulnerable to removal since it's not a creature, and the fact that it cantrips removes the main downside of Prismite, which is being a dead card that's useless outside of the combo.

I'll finish off the less unique commons with two subsets of cards. First, let's look at the spells and creatures that generate powerstones. My favorites are Stern Lesson, Gix's Caress, Sibling Rivalry, and Excavation Explosion. While the blue and black spell effects are usually not worth running in PDH, adding conditional ramp could make them worth running in decks with higher amounts of artifacts or expensive activated abilities. I'm especially interested to see if Gix's Caress can operate as anti-counterspell tech, just as Duress sometimes does in 60-card formats, with the powerstone making sure the card isn't straight card disadvantage. Meanwhile, the red versions are more generically useful effects, and bring extra value to the party by being perfect sacrifice fodder for cards like Destructive Digger and Embraal Gear-Smasher.

The other subset I want to talk about is prototype artifact creatures (Depth Charge Colossus, Rust Goliath, and Boulderbranch Golem). Rust Goliath has the distinction of now being the largest common creature in the format, while Depth Charge Colossus is tied for second with Ancient Brontodon. Both of these will see play in midrange stomp decks, but flicker and reanimation decks will also be able to make great use of them by getting around the high casting costs. I'm looking forward to adding the Colossus to a Disciple of Deceit reanimator brew that I've had half-completed for years because of the lack of stompy threats in those colors. Boulderbranch Golem is mostly notable for its creature type, making it a cool new inclusion to Ich-Tekik decks. On the other hand, I've been getting good use out of cards like Honey Mammoth recently, helping my midrange decks stay out of reach of symmetrical burn and life drain strategies, so Boulderbranch might see play outside of Ich-Tekik, as well. As a sidenote related to Rust Goliath, I am thrilled by this common from a color pie perspective. For many years, the big beaters that defined our format were colorless eldrazi, specifically Ulamog's Crusher and Eldrazi Devastator. While Crusher will always be terrifying and worthy of inclusion, I'm excited that the largest green creature in the format has trample now, so that green isn't ignored at the top end of stomp lists in favor of Devastator. After all, big creatures are supposed to be green's specialty.

Unique Commons

Now that we've gone through all the commons that are more similar to existing cards, let's take a look at the more unique and innovative of the Brothers' War commons, starting with the colorless additions.

Tocasia's Dig Site and Coastal Bulwark are similar to the Strixhaven Campuses and Seer's Lantern, and there are a handful of repeated activated abilities that surveil, such as Sinister Starfish. However, these new colorless cards are still very unique and valuable, specifically to white and green, since those colors have the least access to selective and repeatable ways to fill the grave. For example, I could see them being played in decks like Norika Yamazaki, Renegade Rallier, and Rotwidow Pack. It's also good news for these decks that Dig Site is tutorable with Expedition Map and Bulwark can be found with Shield-Wall Sentinel.

Airlift Chaplain is notable as being the only common way for white to rapidly put multiple cards into the graveyard. Most of the time, this will just act as a cantrip that grabs a creature and puts a spell and a land into the grave, but sometimes, it may also throw a creature in the grave, as well as one into hand. I expect this to see play in creature-focused decks like Custodi Soulcaller and Barrowin, where the EtB effect can be reused. The flying keyword is also extremely relevant in games with monarch and the initiative.

Recommission is a cool new addition to the existing suite of white reanimator effects, and acts somewhat like a color-shifted Unearth. While Unearth has flexibility in the form of cycling, Recommission is more broadly applicable by being able to target artifacts or play with +1/+1 counter synergies. In addition to being usable as a way to reclaim low-cost commanders from the graveyard, I think this will see play in flicker and aristocrat decks. There's also some room for Recommission to enable combo lines involving artifacts like Ashnod's Altar, which white usually has trouble protecting from removal.

Lat-Nam Adept is one of the easiest self-growing creatures to trigger, since it requires little to no resource expenditure. I've been hoping for a while to get more triggered abilities like this, since they give permission decks better win conditions outside of combo or commander damage. I'm specifically looking forward to using Adept alongside Territorial Scythecat and Quandrix Pledgemage in my Gretchen Titchwillow deck.

Gixian Skullflayer is somewhat similar to Lat-Nam Adept, but I think it's less useable because it requires more setup and is easier for opponents to disrupt than the blue wizard. Still should be a fun addition to midrange, combat graveyard decks, though. While it can't get big as quickly as Liliana's Elite, Skullflayer also doesn't have their power and toughness reduced if your grave gets exiled.

Bitter Reunion is an interesting mix of Thrill of Possibility and a haste anthem. It's an odd combination, but it's a perfect fit for decks like Mad Ratter and Quintorius, which bring together grave play with the ability to rapidly create multiple tokens. I could also see a few red voltron decks, such as Storm-Kiln Artist, making use of Reunion for card filtering. However, it might only be good enough to be the final card cut from those decks.

Mishra's Onslaught is the absolute perfect card for all red go-wide decks, giving red the flexibility that it always needs and rarely gets. Some decks will use this aggressively, packing the deck with a higher density of both token creators and pump spells, while others will use this flexibility to make more room for removal or card advantage. Balmor and Third Path Iconoclast are some of the first commanders that jump to my mind for this card to be used in, but the list is endless.

Scrapwork Mutt plays into the same card filtering and graveyard themes we've seen throughout this set. I imagine this is similar to Faithless Looting, in that you'll want to discard it and unearth it to avoid card disadvantage, instead of regularly playing it from your hand. Cards like this and Electric Revelation help to greatly increase the consistency of decks like Quintorius by filling both the roles of discard fodder and discard effect.

Hoarding Recluse is a more expensive Deadly Recluse with a Ruin Rat effect strapped to it. Ruin Rat doesn't see PDH play, but Deadly Recluse does occasionally. I'm curious if there's room for Hoarding Recluse in a few specific midrange decks with easy access to sacrifice effects, like Korozda Guildmage or Dina. Hoarding Recluse would be a powerful combat deterrent while also offering instant-speed grave hate when combined with the ability to sacrifice the Recluse. Using the Recluse in this way means that the grave hate can stop combos in addition to the normal use of exiling a creature before it can be recurred.

Conclusion

Overall, I'd say Gurgling Anointer is the first odd commander I'm excited to brew, Junkyard Genius will provide the most novel-feeling approach to an existing archetype, and Third Path Iconoclast will be the most popular new commander. For commons, my predictions are that Mishra's Onslaught and Gaea's Gift will be the most frequently used cards out of the new set, Tocasia's Dig Site is the biggest step towards making a new style of deck work consistently (mono-white grave play), and Energy Refractor will be the most impactful card for cPDH. Lastly, Thraxodemon is my favorite art of the set (although ALL the horrors and demons have me thrilled).

Like I said at the beginning of this, I'm a big fan of this set, since most of it consists of slight improvements and additional copies. This is the kind of set that fleshes out our card pool, making old archetypes and strategies more consistent while making new strategies viable, all without contributing too much to power creep. I'm especially eager to see the improvement in midrange graveyard decks after this. The graveyard has long been one of the most reliable sources of card advantage in the format. However, over the past 4 years, more straight forward card advantage effects and engines have become so much more prevalent at common rarity that many graveyard strategies have become too slow or inconsistent by comparison. My hope is that the concentration of grave tech we've gotten in the last year and a half (here and from Innistrad) will help bring grave midrange back towards the forefront of the PDH long game.