Brother's War Spoilers
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Sept. 29, 2022, 11:38 p.m. by Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor
Well we got our first sneak peek of Brother's war from WotC. Official spoiler season doesn't start till later in October, but with only a couple cards spoiled so far, I can safely say that WotC is about to make a bunch of money off me.
I mean look at these:
Those old bordered artifacts with the schematic artwork are just beautiful.
Also, the meld mechanic is back and we got one bonkers Urza planeswalker.
Coward_Token says... #2
DemonDragonJ: It'll probably be explained soon in a Making Magic article.
November 2, 2022 1:43 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #3
I don't have an edit button.
In this https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/act-of-war-part-1, Maro says that Powerstones used to come in untapped & couldn't pay for spells, and that he'll "talk more about their transition to their final form next week."
November 2, 2022 1:47 p.m.
I have questions about proofreading now. Audacity looks like it has error.
November 2, 2022 2:43 p.m.
I'm extremely excited for this set. Love the choices for the blueprint artifacts even though I think that there are a few too many. The new commander options look great (the rare Urza and Mishra, Tawnos, Ashnod and Loran in particular) and I'm probably going to build a Standard azorius soldiers deck for Arena.
November 2, 2022 5:15 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
Loran of the third path shall be a nice replacement for Reclamation Sage in my Chulane, Teller of Tales EDH deck, due to her additional abilities.
November 2, 2022 8:36 p.m.
I'm going to be a little voice of dissent here, but I'm not impressed by this set yet. The art treatments and pre-Modern borders are fun, and the meld cards are interesting and dynamic, but I haven't yet seen that "wow!" card that pulls me in. There's a few things I'd like to mess around with (Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa Stax?), but nothing I can't live without.
's card advantage is increasing, but I don't see anything too new. Loran of the Third Path has the parallel draw, Union of the Third Path essentially cantrips, and I see some scry and "look at the top ? cards" effects. So white's card advantage in increasing in frequency, if not variety.
I personally like cards that change depending on what mana you paid for them, so Bladecoil Serpent and Clay Champion will be fun to try out.
November 3, 2022 2:03 a.m.
Coward_Token says... #9
legendofa: re:white card advantage Tocasia's Welcome is worth mentioning, even if it's pretty similar to e.g. Welcoming Vampire. Loran, Disciple of History basically cantrips your legends in the right deck. Thopter Shop is a death draw-trigger, which is kind of unusual for white. Kayla's Music Box is... kind of infefficient but also new-ish to the color.
November 3, 2022 12:10 p.m.
Coward_Token Good picks. I hadn't seen Thopter Shop yet; that one's kind of nice. Loran DoH is impressive, but it's still artifact recursion, which white has had since the original Brothers' War set, with Argivian Archaeologist. It's a solid card, just not anything too original.
November 3, 2022 12:53 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #11
Haywire Mite looks like another one to try out in Glissa.
The Archimandrite: Suddenly Persistent Petitioners decks are agro decks. Jokes aside, this looks like a pretty interesting commander. I am getting Shanna, Purifying Blade vibes where you are getting additional value from the lifegain. I am a little sad now that Monastery Mentor didn't get a reprint this set.
If only Disciple of Caelus Nin had flash. Then folks might have to think twice about casting Teferi's Protection. Owell, it's still an interesting design.
Sedris, the Traitor King players must be really sad that Meticulous Excavation is in White.
November 3, 2022 9:43 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #12
Continuing my trend of complaining about color bleeding, I don't like that Emergency Weld is continuing Fortuitous Find's legacy of giving black (noncreature non-Vehicle) artifact recursion
I dislike Disciple of Caelus Nin too, because it's a needlessly harsh punishment for using Teferi's Protection, one of the few ways for go-wide decks to survive Cyclonic Rift.
November 4, 2022 12:04 p.m.
Well, that's why I keep saying they should print more punishers with upside instead of stax pieces.
November 4, 2022 7:39 p.m.
I'm not going crazy and I'm reading this right, right?
This card is pure value? Like...I can make a bigger Tarmogoyf or get back Lotus Bloom? I feel like this card isn't real. Almost seems too good for a common. And you can get nuttier with cards like Thassa's Oracle or Sword of the Meek. You can even get back Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Unearth is good, but it doesn't grab Lion's Eye Diamond.
November 4, 2022 11:14 p.m. Edited.
This set seems kind of disappointing to me... but then again most of the contents weren't up my alley in the first place I guess. One of the cards that most fits with my playstyle seems to be projecting up in the $15 price-tag (Mishra) which seems unreasonable for a 2-piece groupslug piece, hopefully that comes back down to earth. Otherwise, not really a bad thing when a set only costs me <$10 or so due to a lack of cards I care about.
A decent set for what they are doing with . I'm happy for the commander product dude that fetches plains & the legendary e-wit with vigilance & ongoing value when sticking on the battlefield. Hopefully the pricetag stays reasonable on that due to the "opponent draws" drawback.
The prototype cards DO have a bevy of good abilities even on the small bodies, which is kindof a fun type of toy for decks that tend to grow creatures fast. Commanders like Breena, the Demagogue will probably opt for the prototype every time.
November 5, 2022 10:44 a.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #16
sylvannos - Recommission only returns cmc 3 or less, so that does limit what you can do with it. But it is a pretty solid card in low cmc white decks.
Gleeock - I was actually thinking that the prototype artifacts could have a cool blink deck built around them. Most of them have an ETB effect so you play them for their reduced cost and then Conjurer's Closet them at endstep to get additional triggers/transform them into their larger form.
I think one reprint that is flying under the radar in this set is Obstinate Baloth. I don't play a lot of standard but I know that black aligned Liliana decks are pretty popular now. Baloth seems like a solid answer.
November 5, 2022 10:57 a.m.
@Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor: It's the modularity of it that seems nuts to me. It's obviously not like you're casting Animate Dead on a Griselbrand. But you can use it as a value card on something like Kitchen Finks, a combo enabler for Thopter Foundry, or even a Desperate Ritual when used on Black Lotus.
And a lot of these cards fit neatly into decks like Bomberman or Stoneblade.
November 5, 2022 11:48 a.m.
TheoryCrafter says... #18
Yes. Unlike treasure tokens, Powerstones is a reusable source of mana. If they came onto the battlefield untapped, you could get cards like Darksteel Colossus out on the battlefield much sooner.
November 5, 2022 7:32 p.m.
jethstriker says... #19
"Unlike treasure tokens, Powerstones is a reusable source of mana."
How stupid of me, I totally missed this. Maybe that's why their justifiable coming into play tapped.
November 5, 2022 9:21 p.m.
For a set that has a big theme of digging up old machines and sending them into combat, there's not much in BRO that's better than Refurbish or Trash for Treasure. I was hoping for some more core pieces to update a Modern artifact reanimator deck.
November 10, 2022 2:02 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #21
A bit of a follow-up:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/act-of-war-part-2
"The other big evolution with Powerstone tokens in set design was the realization that they wanted all of them to enter the battlefield tapped. This was done for two reasons. One was a power-level issue. Instantly adding mana makes them stronger, which requires you to charge more for them and limits how and where you can use them. The second issue was a complexity one. When the Powerstone token enters untapped and provides mana, there's a desire to try and optimize the mana, which makes the math more complicated to track. As the Set Design team was looking for places to streamline complexity, this felt like a gain."
November 11, 2022 3:01 p.m.
Ah, they are trying to reduce cognitive load. High cognitive load in MtG has been a barrier to new players... With the REAL one being $$
November 11, 2022 5:33 p.m.
TheoryCrafter says... #23
My thoughts on the Brothers' War:
One of the things going into this set I was concerned about was how they were going to take Pre and Post Mending Power levels into account without making it overpowered compared to the more recent sets. From what I've seen they seem to have done an alright Job. Urza, Planeswalker Meld Meld is overpowered, but the Meld requirement makes enough sense of both design and flavor.
Cards like Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim, The Temporal Anchor, and Saheeli, Filigree Master are set in the present so the post Mending Power levels apply. I think the newest Teferi is a bit underrated. If you're looking to make him look formidable, Teferi's Ageless Insight in non-standard formats is your best bet. Combine this with Jace's Archivist or another draw engine and let the shenanigans begin.
The whole flavor seems to imply that yes, All these cards are powerful, but the power level displays raw power over refined skill. The best example is One with the Multiverse. While it is cheaper than Omniscience, manawise, and let's you cast from your library, the limit is one card per turn. Since the lore states the development of the academic study of Magic didn't happen until after the war, it helps explains this.
However, despite it making sense design wise, I'm a bit at a loss on how powerstones entering the battlefield tapped works from a flavor point point of view.
Once people realize how good Calamity's Wake can be against control, flashback and stax for mono-white decks the price will go further up.
If you run Urza, Powerstone Prodigy and don't have Mirrodin Besieged in your Commander deck or Terisian Mindbreaker in your Standard deck, you may be building them wrong.
It just occurred to me as I write this that they could have done a whole 10 card cycle of Surveil land cards like the "Temple of..." Scryland cards that originated in the Theros block.
Oh, Awaken the Woods, if you only weren't hovering around $16.
The Locust God Just got some extra card draw in Symmetry Matrix.
The Stasis Coffin, Goblin Firebomb, why do all the really cool colorless control cards have to be so expensive, manawise?
Audacity should make a decent early to mid-game companion to Ram Through in Pioneer.
Alloy Animist would make more sense if the artifact became an Elemental in addition to its other types.
Goblin Arsonist and Festering Goblin, I'd like to introduce you to Goblin Blast-Runner.
Some people seemed surprised about Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor making Surveil available in Bant, but it makes sense considering Surveil can be an oppressive ability. If I were going to create a GWUB aligned faction for a set. Surveil would be my mechanic and not just my keyword.
Fortified Beachhead reminds me of the faction land cards like Murmuring Bosk from the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block. I wonder what they're planning here.
That's pretty much it with this set. Thank you for reading me out. May you draw well.
November 15, 2022 5:49 a.m.
Coward_Token says... #24
Good catch on Symmetry Matrix not just working with nontokens; your combo made me think of Marneus Calgar + Nadir Kraken
jethstriker says... #1
I'm also wondering about the tapped condition with Powerstone tokens. Treasure tokens, which are basically Lotus Petal, are okay but Powerstone tokens, with added artifact condition, are not? My guess is due to Standard and Limited reasons. Another guess is flavor reasons: they are paying homage to Worn Powerstone.
November 1, 2022 9:22 p.m.