10 best Brothers’ War cards in Magic: The Gathering’s latest set
Sibling the best.
The best Brothers’ War cards are going to have a massive impact on Magic: The Gathering in multiple formats. There are a lot of truly excellent and exciting cards in this latest set that feel exciting to get your hands on because a lot of them are old hands of the MTG universe - and the mechanics are fun to use, too.
With such a blistering array of options to choose from, you might think it impossible to just pick the ten best cards from The Brothers’ War, but you underestimate our power. As ever, we’re here to give you a lowdown on some of the top cards in this set, so let’s get into it.
Best MTG Brothers’ War cards
- Overwhelming Remorse
- Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia
- Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
- Queen Kayla bin-Kroog
- Razorlash Transmogrant
- Calamity's Wake
- Urza’s Command
- Brotherhood’s End
- Awaken the Woods
- Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter
We’re steering clear of reprints here - primarily because if we didn’t the entire list would be ten entries of Monastery Swiftspear. Well, that and Diabolic Intent at number ten or something. There are also a fair few new Brothers’ War cards that nearly ended up on the list including the new Urza, Planeswalker.
However, as powerful as Urza is, we’re not sure it’s quite fast enough or flexible enough to ever come into play before you’ve already locked the game up anyway. This is a particularly cool list of the best MTG cards in Brothers’ War, because we’ve put a common in first place just to keep you on your toes. Ready?
1. Overwhelming Remorse
Powerful removal
The name of this card is a little off, because after casting it we’re confident you’ll be feeling pretty smug. That’s because this is a five-mana instant that exiles a target creature or planeswalker. Of course, it’s not on this list of the best Brothers’ War cards without a little more text.
The additional text here is that it costs one mana less to cast for each creature card in your graveyard, and it can be as cheap as one Black mana. While that’s a little slower in formats like Standard, having access to this card in Modern, Legacy and Commander means you’ll likely only ever be spending one mana on this powerful effect.
2. Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia
A lethal threat
Misra, Lost to Phyrexia is one of the new meld cards in Brothers’ War, which is a mechanic we’ve not seen since Emrakul invaded Innistrad in 2016’s Eldritch Moon set. This mechanic fuses two cards together; in this case, the four-mana Mishra, Claimed by Gix and the three-mana Phyrexian Dragon Engine.
Both of these cards are strong on their own, but if you attack with both of them at the same time they meld to become a 9/9 with some very silly effects.
Whenever Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia attacks or enters the battlefield, you get to choose three from having an opponent discard two cards, dealing three damage to something, destroying an artifact or planeswalker, giving your creature menace and trample, giving enemy creatures -1/-4, or creating two Powerstone tokens.
It’s just a lot of stuff on a very big body, and we have a feeling a lot of people will be losing to this card.
3. Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
Card advantage is king
A lot of planeswalkers are strong, and a lot of Teferi planeswalkers are really strong. That’s the case here too with Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim, a five-mana Blue planeswalker who comes in with four loyalty and gains more counters every time you draw a card.
The zero loyalty ability allows you to draw a card, which means it really gains you a loyalty, and the -2 ability creates a 2/2 blue Spirit that gets a +1/+1 counter on it every time you draw a card. Finally, the -12 ability removes all nonland permanents from your opponent’s battlefield. Given how much card draw there is, it’s not impossible that you get that ultimate on the turn after you play Teferi.
4. Queen Kayla bin-Kroog
Discard cards for value
Queen Kayla bin-Kroog is a fascinating card in The Brothers’ War. This three-mana Red and White 2/3 can be tapped to discard all of the cards in your hand, and then you can draw that many cards. There are plenty of instances in which that will be enough, but there’s more.
The card reads: “You may choose an artifact or creature card with mana value 1 you discarded this way, then do the same for artifact or creature cards with mana values 2 and 3.” In the right decks, you basically get to pay four mana to draw some cards and put six mana’s worth of cards into play.
5. Razorlash Transmogrant
A persistent zombie
Who doesn’t love a good recursive threat? Razorlash Transmogrant is a two-mana artifact zombie with 3/1. It can’t block, which isn’t the best, but it can come back to the battlefield for six mana with a +1/+1 counter on it.
It gets really spicy if your opponent has four or more nonbasic lands, as they likely do in Modern and beyond, because the ability then costs only two mana. The ability to constantly attack with a 4/2, as it will be once resurrected, is very powerful.
6. Calamity's Wake
Stop all interference
Calamity’s Wake is a two-mana White instant card that exiles all graveyards, and stops players from casting noncreature spells on the turn it was cast. All of this is good if you’re in charge of when it happens.
Exiling all graveyards stops a lot of problematic and somewhat unfair-feeling decks that rely on resurrecting expensive creatures for cheap. Meanwhile, stopping noncreature spells could mean that you’re guaranteeing that nobody interferes with a big turn, or the chance to cut off a combo deck before it gets going.
7. Urza’s Command
Options for days
The new cycle of Command cards in The Brothers’ War all have their strengths, but our favourite of the bunch is Urza’s Command. This four-mana instant gives you four different options to choose from, and you can pick two as you cast it.
You can give creatures you don’t control -2/-0 until the end of the turn, you can create a taped Powerstone token, you can make a 0/0 Construct creature that has +1/+1 for each artifact you control or you can scry 1 and then draw a card. The variety of options here is really strong, allowing this card to be used to neuter an incoming attack or set up for a big turn later on.
8. Brotherhood’s End
A flexible board wipe
Brotherhood’s End is a three-mana Red sorcery spell that can be used as a board wipe, but with specific aims. You can either choose to deal three damage to each creature and each planeswalker, or you can destroy all artifacts with a mana value of three or less.
Both of these are worthy of being a three-mana spell on their own, but having them both on one card makes this a great card against a lot of different decks, and you can play it without worrying about what it is your opponent might be doing.
9. Awaken the Woods
That’s a lot of land
Playing more land is a good way to gain an advantage; likewise, being able to flood the board with tokens is a winning strategy too. Awaken the Woods is a card that costs X and two Green mana, and tells us that we no longer have to choose between the two.
This sorcery spell creates X 1/1 Forest Dryad land creature tokens. These tokens do suffer from summoning sickness, but it means that they can’t be hit by spells that affect nonland cards only. It more or less doubles your mana investment, while also allowing you to create a lot of bodies to block or attack with.
10. Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter
Surprise artifacts
Finally, we have Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter. This card could win the award for the most metal-looking creature going, in both a literal and nonliteral sense, and is a three-mana 1/2 artifact creature with flash and flying.
It also allows you to cast colourless spells and artifact spells as though they had flash - allowing them to be played anytime an instant could be played - and gets a +1/+1 counter on it if you cast a spell that costs more than its power. It’s an all-around fascinating support card that can quickly snowball into a massive game-ending threat.